What are the transgressions of Francisk Skaryna and Petr Masherov? :: Charter'97 :: News

Majority of people living in Minsk have been very negative towards renaming of city streets and avenues. On the initiative of UCP, “Narodnaja Volia” has published a coupon with statement in favor of Minsk city referendum. We asked Anatolij Lebedko, the UCP leader, about the reaction of readers on this initiative. For the period of four days we have been receiving 100 to 200 letters every day. Almost two thousand people signed under the requirement to organize Minsk city referendum. They have told their firm “no” to the illegal edict. And only two persons out of all who sent us letters expressed their support to renaming the streets. It is two out of two thousand. These numbers tell us a lot. I would like to underline that these signatures were received by mail, or citizens brought them to the office themselves. This is an evident that the fact of streets renaming stung the people.

-- And what were the arguments in favor of streets renaming?

-- In fact, there were no arguments. But I believe it is worth to cite some lines from those letters. “If I were the head of state, I would have declared the opposition illegal. This would mean that we could kill any of you and not be responsible for that. And we, the people who care about our Republic, can say only one thing” take your dirty hands away from our president.

-- Is there any hope that law-enforcement agencies interfere? For example, the Office of Public Prosecutor? The lawyers tell that the edict is illegal.

-- I submitted an address to the Office of Public Prosecutor and asked them to annul the illegal edict. My argumentation was well-based. And I got extremely interesting answer from them. The Office of Public Prosecutor believes that they have no right to observe the legality of decrees, edicts and other legal acts adopted by the head of state. By the way, we got the same answer from the Office of Public Prosecutor when we tried to appeal illegal acts of Lukashenko’s administration. We can draw two conclusions out of that. First of all, Belarus is not ruled by people as propaganda says, Belarus is ruled by some organized group of people. And activity of this group is not under the control of anyone. Second, some citizens of Belarus do not observe the Constitution or any laws. They have no responsibility at all.

-- As far as I know you submitted an inquiry on streets renaming to the representatives in Minsk City Council. Did you get any feedback from them?

-- City Council is silent. There is a fear that they will be forced to adopt the decision on renaming the streets. If we had real and fair elections, the City Council would have taken the opinion of Minsk residents into account. But in current system, representatives play the role of a servant implementing any will of the regent. Where are the people who promised to protect interests if Minsk voters in 2003?

-- Meanwhile, people are going out to the streets and avenues to express their protest. How long will this last? And why do only single people go out and protest if the majority of Minsk residents are against streets renaming?

-- Really, every Tuesday at 18.00 people gather at Skaryna avenue and every Wednesday at the same time they go to Masherov avenue to express their protest. It is not illegal to carry the portrait of Skaryna or Masherov. Therefore, OMON does not detain them; therefore the court pleaded Valerij Schukin detained by militia not guilty. But OMON pushes those people away from the streets into the yards. However, other people watching OMON actions have been sympathetic to the protesters. At the same time, not many people go out and protest. The main reason is lack of information. State media ignores this issue. And н if being open н so far fear has been stronger than civic position of people. However, even if one twentieth of those who oppose streets renaming went out into the streets, OMON would not push them away.

-- And what is going to happen next?

-- There are different ways of opposing the edict. One can put pictures of Skaryna and Masherov on the windows of his car. One can collect signatures of people living in his house and pass them to the UCP office. One can donate money for printing out information leaflets. One can join the people gathering on Tuesday and Wednesday at Skaryna and Masherov avenues. One can try reaching the representative of his city constituency. One can join the initiative group on collecting signatures for Minsk city referendum. There are plenty of possibilities.

-- Can You, please, clear the situation with Minsk city referendum?

-- In current situation only Minsk residents can decide on the names of Minsk main streets.

-- Do You believe the administration would allow the referendum?

This is hardly possible. However, the administration will have to choose between a bad and a very bad scenario.

-- And what is Your personal opinion on the real reason of renaming Minsk streets and avenues?

-- Fight has become the main element of Belarusian politics. For 11 years the administration has been fighting н against the Supreme Council, parties, trade unions, dishonest journalists, Belarusian Lyceum, European Humanities University, protestants, Union of Poles, USA and Europe“ Now they fight against the memory of famous Belarusians, against the people who are highly appraised and respected by the nation. And according to Belarusian propaganda, only one person can be appraised.