Hail to Heroes!

Sasha's 3 per cent are melting down and about to dissolve into thin air.

When you sign against Lukashenka and rejoice at the fact that you are in line with like-minded people and there are so many of us, and it is not a big deal to sign, and in general changes are about to come - please remember those who signed more than twenty years ago and paid for it with months and years in prison. Say thank you to them - today they are jailed to save us. When we stayed home because it was cold or scary, they went back to prison. Fortunately, there are so many of us today that there aren't enough prisons for all of us.

I still can't understand how nice, educated, clean, Minskers with new handkerchiefs in their pockets could resent on their Instagram accounts that Seviarynets came to the picket. We stand for peaceful changes here. It's a revolution of signatures, while he came to yell and used our free microphone. He is a provocateur, isn't he? Well, these nice people have finally realized that only their participation can bring changes in the country. It's so damn great that we're all together now. I just want to remind you that Pavel Seviarynets first was jailed in 1998. They accused him of sabotaging a concert dedicated to the "unification of Belarus and Russia". He was 21 years old and signed against Lukashenka. Then there were other criminal cases, two sentences and five years in the punitive settlement. It is barely possible to count how much time he spent in the detention center on Akrestsina while serving administrative arrests. Now he's there again. I hope he'll be at large soon and never go back there again.

Maksim Viniarsky and Mikalai Statkevich are also there. Maksim is being constantly arrested regardless of his whereabouts. He may not always reach the destination - a rally, a march, a picket on signature collection. It's usually enough to go outdoors to spend 15 days under arrest. The fact is that Maksim signed against Lukashenka twenty years ago. Mikalai Statkevich's biography includes five years in prison, three years of punitive settlement, and an endless number of administrative arrests. Imagine for a second that your life has ten years razed out. For no reason. Just because you signed against Lukashenka twenty five years ago. Now you stay on Akrestsina in this heat without a chance to receive a parcel or even water. Parcels were banned as soon as the police started taking participants of peaceful pickets there. However, the plate says that parcels are restricted because of the "unfavourable epidemiological situation". In other words, the epidemic is an excuse to deprive prisoners of personal cleansing, disinfecting wipes and drinking water. Do you remember Brest bloggers Siarhei Piatrukhin and Aliaksandr Kabanau caught coronavirus after 15-day arrest? Now you can imagine the risk people serving their arrest are subject to.

When Sasha 3% was still Sasha 10% (or even 15, we are not greedy), his informants still obeyed one norm of the administrative code. Women who have minor children have not been sentenced to administrative arrest. They were just fined. Today, these informants may suffer from hypoxia in this muddy 3% brine as they have finally lost their senses. Alena Lazarchyk, the mother of a six-year-old child, was detained on June 5 and sent to the detention center on Akrestsina. Her husband, Siarhei Matskoitya, was taken there the day before. Siarhei is sentenced to 15 days of arrest, while Elena was subject to 12. Only three days later her sentence was replaced with a fine. A little boy spent three days without his parents. Their relatives living in Minsk took care of the boy. What if they hadn't lived in Minsk? However, plankton of this three-per cent brine could hardly think about it.

Do you know how Artsyom Chernyak, Mikhail Bandarenka, Dzmitry Kazlou (Grey Cat) were detained on Wednesday? The guys had a few free hours. They decided to fix the fence at the cottage of their friend. Three minibuses drove up to the cottage area. Activists were grabbed and pulled into a "personal" vehicle. Oh, yes, they were taken away half-naked. It was a hot and guys took off their T-shirts. They weren't even allowed to wear those T-shirts. By the way, on 19 December 2010 Artsyom Chernyak managed to carry out a flag from the Square, which became the massacre. He was 13 years old then. He put his signature against Lukashenka when he studied in Junior School. He's still paying for it.

Today, people are lining up in pickets to sign against Lukashenka. That's great. Signatures are gaining critical mass. Sasha's three per cent are slowly melting down and will soon dissolve into thin air. However, let us remember that people who challenged the regime much earlier currently suffer from inhuman conditions. Due to them Belarusians always knew that they were not the dust under the feet of marchers on parade, but people. These people reminded everyone that there was no air to breathe in our country; they kept us from eternal hibernation; they served sentences instead of us all. They are our heroes. They have been breaking through the musty prison wall separating Belarus from the world and hurting their hands drawing blood in attempts to knock down heavy rusty locks.

Do not delude yourself imaging that a wizard will come and hundreds of thousands of signatures will turn into a driving force of changes. They would have been easily washed down but for those who are being held in jail today. They do guarantee with their lives every signature we give for a new Belarus. They go to prison to give us a chance.

No Babariko can exist without Statkevich; there can't be Tsepkalo without Seviarynets; there can't be Tsikhanouskaya without Tsikhanouski. We have both common pickets and the microphone. We have a common country. The victory will be common as well. It's enough for everybody.

Iryna Khalip, especially for Charter97.org

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