The Day Will Soon Rise

There is one important December tradition.

For Belarusians, December is not only an expectation of price rise from January 1. It is not only readiness for another state dirty trick. It is not only the forced unpaid leave for some people and the fight for a day off on January 2 for others. We have one more December tradition. We sign postcards.

The last decade has bred up this tradition. It's happened along with smartphones but raised no contradictions. On the one hand, we have technologies and gadgets, which let us not to press buttons. Smart programs will congratulate or at least remind you that it is time to. On the other hand, there are endless repressions. Every time it turns out that among friends, relatives, acquaintances or just cute people you do not personally know, some do not need GIFs on Messenger. These people are in jail. Since 2010, every New Year's Eve we have someone in jail to send postcards to.

I sign cards every year. I remember sending congratulations to my husband when he was in jail. Hundreds of more people he even did not know sent him New Year's postcards. They wished him to be at large soon and expressed that kind and touching words that help a prisoner to survive. Together with those who were released, we sent postcards to Mikalai Statkevich and Ihar Alinevich, Ales Beliatski and Yury Rubtsou and then to Dzmitry Palienka and Illia Valovik. Every December bunk beds had their "hosts". However, until 2010 they were not empty as well.

This year, I send a postcard to Mikhail Zhemchuzhny in the Horki colony. He managed to congratulate everyone in advance. He knew that before the New Year he would get to the penalty ward that has no opportunity to write letters. It was true. For five years of imprisonment, he learned the habits of his guards. Now he always knows when and how this meanness comes.

Another postcard I send to the prisoner with a very different story - the former deputy chairman of Minsk City Executive Committee Andrei Damaratski. He was accused of corruption and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Later the term was cut to seven years and even confiscation was annulled. As the head of the main department of the consumer market, he "illegally saved money", which was spent to repay the loan for the construction of the Stolitsa shopping mall. This center belongs to the city, and if this money had not been transferred, the city budget would have had to pay off the loan. However, I do not want to tell Damaratski's case now. That's not what I'm talking about. I mean that apart from political repressions, judicial arbitrariness is blooming in Belarus. Officials of all ranks find themselves behind bars on false charges or someone's calls. They suffer the most. Anyway, the indicators of the fighting corruption, which must be met by any means, are always higher than those of the fighting dissidence.

This is the only thing that unites us and officials. Both we and they easily become victims of political or judicial arbitrariness. They just persistently do not want to realise that they spend their lives to maintain the vital functions of the very system that will regrettably devour them at any moment. They spend eight hours a day to ensure "good nutrition" for the system. When it grinds them, it remains unmentioned. No one can notice the speechless. If I hadn't met Andrei Damaratski's mother, I would have hardly thought about it. How quickly we forget that Natasha Radzina and I shared bunk beds with officials in the pre-trial detention center, and our friends, husbands and comrades were in the penalty institutions.

We must remember it. As well as the fact that New Year is about to come and some feel worse. We'll have time to deal with every wrongful sentence and every frame-up. In the meantime, even a wet, dank New Year does not meet its historical responsibilities. The sack of gifts is falling apart. Do not be lazy and send a New Year postcard to one of the illegal convicts. There are more of them than we can imagine. It will be easier for them to outlive this seemingly endless winter night. So will we. It's not a polar one, it's an illusion. The day will soon rise.

Iryna Khalip, especially for Charter97.org

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