Henadz Karpenka: 8 Years Since Death :: Charter'97 :: News

8 years ago Henadz Karpenka departed this life. Vice speaker of the Supreme Soviet, a chairman of the National Executive Committee, Associate of the National Academy of Science Professor Henadz Karpenka dies at 7 a.m. on April 6, 1999. The real reasons of his death are still unknown. The wife and children of the oppositional politician had to go to Germany because of the constant persecution and pressure of the authorities. They have been granted a status of political refugees there.

The death of Henadz Karpenka was a beginning of a chain of tragic events: abductions of Yury Zakharanka, Viktar Hanchar, Anatol Krasouski, and Zmitser Zavadski.

“Any other viewpoint which does not correspond to your conception, are not understood and even harshly and brutally cracked down on together with their authors, “Henadz Karpenka said publicly, addressing Alyaksandr Lukashenka. “Stop telling on every street corner that the opposition is eager to seize power. Believe me, reasonable people who have united and formed opposition, do not need power for the sake of power. They are against the regime which leads to pauperization”.

After the death of Henadz Karpenka he would be called an absolute antipode of the Belarusian president. He loved and respected people, he was honest, and he never betrayed his principles and views. He loved his country and his people; he believed in the future and worked for it sparing no efforts and forgetting about his health. He never licked the “president’s” boots.

Henadz Karpenka was used to create, and not to destroy. When he formed the National executive committee, scientists and economists who could hold the Belarusian economy from an economic collapse.

Karpenka saw that the authorities which had power were losing it, and soon the power would be dropped as an unnecessary thing, and prevailing authorities would flee with skim money, while the people would be left to shift for themselves as best they could. By speaking about that publicly he signed his own death warrant. He was too dangerous for the regime. He couldn’t but understand that. But he acted as he had been used to – openly and honestly.