Belarusian democrats honored legacy of heroes 14:43, 03/07/2007
On July 3 Belarusian democrats have honoured legacy of Belarusians who died for liberation of Minsk from the Nazi invaders during the World War II. An international coordinator of the Charter’97 Andrei Sannikov, a minister of foreign economic ties of Belarus (1994-1999) Mikhail Marynich and a coordinator of the European coalition Mikola Statkevich laid flowers to Eternal Flame in Minsk. Opposition leaders were accompanied by 150 young activists in T-shirts “For Freedom!” The activists brought a floral basket with a white-red-white ribbon and words “For Freedom! For Belarus!”
“We have gathered here to pay tribute to those who had died for Belarus, for lives of modern generations. Minsk was the first European capital which was liberated from the Nazi invaders. In the United Europe, which full-fledged member Belarus is to become undoubtedly, this holiday is to be celebrated as well. This day has always been respected not only in Minsk, but in Belarus as well, as liberation of a capital is liberation of the whole country. Later history ruled otherwise, but however, we should never forget that our native land was liberated from invaders,” told the international coordinator of the Charter’97 Andrei Sannikov, a former deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus.
“Last century there were two tragedies and two disasters in Belarus: Bolshevism and Fascism. My family has suffered from the both tragedies. One of my grandfathers, Semyon Harbavets, was a participant of a Belarusian underground in Poland, a chairman of a village Soviet, was killed during an interrogation in NKVD in 1937. The second grandfather, Pavel Statkevich, an old person in poor health, was killed by local police forces, Nazi collaborators, in his own house for ties with partisans. And today I want to pay tribute to the memory of my relatives, Fascism victims, and all Belarusians who died in that war,” told the coordinator of the European coalition, a chairman of the Belarusian Social-democratic party (Narodnaya Hramada) Mikola Statkevich.
“Liberation of Minsk is a great holiday for all Belarusians. It is a tribute to the memory of all those people who defended Belarus from losing its independence. Unfortunately, today this sovereignty is at risk because of the regime’s short-sighted policy. However, participation of young people in our today’s action of memory shows that the European movement is gaining momentum in Belarus; it is supported by the society. Democracy is to win eventually,” one of the leaders of the Belarusian opposition, Minister of Foreign Economic Ties of Belarus (1994-1999) Mikhail Marynich is convinced.
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