Belarusian KGB: Foreign Mass Media Will be Left without Accreditation and Expelled from Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

The chairman of the KGB (State Security Committee) of Belarus Stsyapan Sukharenka stated that the KGB has information confirming existence of illegal groups that at one point can incite mass riot in the country. “The work is underway, and I hesitate to speak of concrete figures, but very many young people got under influence of destructive forces,” the chairman of the KGB said to journalists on Friday. Speaking about the legal responsibility for “fraudulent representation of situation in the Republic of Belarus” in reference to foreign mass media in the country, the head of the KGB said that in this case “foreign mass media would be deprived of accreditation and expelled from the country”. As for Belarusian journalists, contributing to the foreign mass media, S.Sukharenka stated: “They should read the law and think it over”.

Commenting on the draft law, passed by the illegitimate “chamber of representatives” on Friday, which introduce criminal responsibility for discrediting Belarus and its government authorities, S. Sukharenka noted that “these amendments are not tailor-made for a certain person”. “Nobody set an objective to limit somebody’s actions, but we were trying to make these actions civilized, within the law, and not damaging the interests of the state,” he said.

The KGB chief emphasized that “there would be a reaction for concrete actions”. S.Sukharenka vigorously opposes the comparison of the adopted law with the situation of Stalin-time mass repressions. “All the time we are being intimidated by the 1937, we are always compared to the year 1937. But such norms exist in many countries, and they are considerably harsher, and nobody speaks of the years 37th or 38th,” S. Sukharenka says.

As said by him, “we are speaking of those elements which are really forming now, and one time they can take to the streets; that’s why we are taking preventive measures”.

As said by him, “we have enough information, and we have prepared a number of interesting materials, which have been submitted to the deputies, so that they could bring it to the attention of their voters and told about our viewpoint to the situation”.

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