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Iryna Khalip: Continuous Protests Will Lead To Regime Crash

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Iryna Khalip: Continuous Protests Will Lead To Regime Crash
Iryna Khalip

Belarusians are geniuses of solidarity.

In Belarus, despite the daily arrests and detentions, peaceful protests have been held for the fiftieth day. A few days earlier Lukashenka had secretly held an "inauguration", which was not recognized by many European countries, as well as the United States and Canada. French President Emmanuel Macron stated that Aliaksandr Lukashenka must leave his post voluntarily.

Iryna Khalip, the personal correspondent of Novaya Gazeta in Belarus, spoke on the air of Current Time about how long the Belarusians will be taking to the streets, why the citizens have shown such solidarity now and what needs to be done to defeat the regime.

"Belarusians are geniuses of solidarity"

- You said not so long ago that it was the hardest summer in our life, obviously referring to August, but it was also the most beautiful summer in our life. What hopes do you have for this autumn?

- I really hope that it will be the most beautiful autumn in our life, naturally. I have written and spoken about it. I see that despite the coming of autumn, despite that many people have faced repression, despite that it is raining and cold, and in general that people have many different problems, nobody is getting off the streets.

Not only from Sunday to Sunday, but in the evenings on weekdays people gather in their districts; they agree to go to the march in columns together rather than alone. They chip in together to pay fines of those who were arrested on the previous march and were fined by the court. People buy paint together and decorate fences and benches with white-red-white. Such a stunning self-organization is going on. There is such solidarity going on that I can't help but say that a beautiful autumn awaits us.

- It is a very interesting phenomenon that the Belarusian society has united from below at the level of yards, houses and stairwells. Can you tell us more about it? For example, it is quite an unusual phenomenon for the Russian society. I read that yesterday the residents of a residential complex in Minsk talked to the participants of the Russian hip-hop group collectively, a video broadcast was organized, and then they got a live broadcast of the concert of these musicians in St. Petersburg. Do I have it straight that this has become a kind of common place for the people of Belarus? And how did it become possible at all?

- It became possible, maybe, owing to the fact that the Belarusians are geniuses of solidarity, who finally discovered it all in themselves. Now, the whole self-organization is really taking place at the grassroots level. Every yard, micro-district, street has its own telegram-chat where people exchange information, agree on meetings. All famous Belarusian musicians come to one of the yards, to one of the streets every night and give their home concerts.

People help each other, people warn each other. Roughly: "There are mini-buses with tinted glasses standing at that street, be careful, don't go there, please". Or, on the contrary, before the rally: "Let's all gather together over here, so that we don't get rounded up one by one". It's really something absolutely incredible, and in anticipation of your next possible question, I can say that this is what, in my opinion, has caused such violent dispersals and repressions as today and in recent days.

It was the districts, it was their representatives who announced the plan of general attack on the dictatorship.

- In other words, the regime is afraid of the neighborhoods.

- Of course it is. The regime is afraid of what it does not control. When people gather in one specific place in the center of the city, then it is easier. It is possible for Lukashenka to fly over them in a helicopter so that he can look at all this from above. It is possible to organize a trap, it is possible to push them to the river so that they jump into the water like a few weeks ago when they were rescued by the Society for Development of Water Transport and Passenger Safety teams. And what about the yards, what about the micro-districts? The more so as it gets dark early now. Where should one send all this riot policemen? What to do? They do not control it, and they are definitely afraid and nervous.

"The Belarusians have realized that the regime doesn't care a dime about their lives".

- Why, in your opinion, the Belarusian society has evolved so much, why, let's say, a year ago or in the beginning of summer there was no such solidarity? Or simply there was no opportunity to demonstrate it, although it certainly was?

- At the beginning of this summer, it was all already there. You probably remember the huge queues to pickets to collect signatures for alternative candidates. It was the first mass protest of Belarusians in this political season, probably. A year ago, this certainly was not the case. I think that the trigger was the pandemic, to which the Belarusian authorities did not pay any attention whatsoever.

The Belarusians understood that their lives are not just worthless, that their lives have been spat on to such an extent, they are treated with such disdain. All the Belarusians remember very well what Aliaksandr Lukashenka called the victims of coronavirus "these poor people who were unlucky". If the authorities treat the people this way, then in the end the people, like a spring, begin to stretch, and this leads to completely unpredictable consequences.

- So, the coronavirus, strange as it may seem, has shaken Lukashenka's position, but for the Belarusians it has become a virus of freethinking and free action?

- The Belarusians finally realized that no one would take care of them except for themselves. This is very important, this is a very significant discovery. All these fairy tales and myths about a social state that cares about its citizens were simply turned to dust and ashes. People understood that they have to protect themselves and their families, their loved ones. And they are now ready to protect themselves.

And Lukashenka's calculations were incorrect. He thought that people would quietly lock themselves in their apartments because of the pandemic and would not go out. That's why I think he scheduled the elections for August 9, although he had a certain period of time. It was a miscalculation.

- On September 26, about a hundred participants of a women's march were detained in Minsk. A lot of people criticize women's marches and peaceful protest for these flowers, for the hearts, for soul-saving conversations with law enforcement agencies. How effective, in your opinion, is such a protest?

- I believe that everything that leads to the regime's weakening is effective. Any taking to the streets is effective, even one-person protests are effective, for example, like the one of the Salihorsk miner, who chained himself at a depth of 305 meters. All of this makes sense; all of these are the little strokes that fall great oaks, and they have already almost made it fall.

My personal opinion is that I am against having soul-saving conversations with law enforcement officials. I believe that any conversations with them can be conducted by investigators. Although, on the other hand, the investigators are now the same law enforcement officers. In short, you understand me. I will never hug a riot police officer in my life and will never give them flowers. But at the same time, I understand that those who want to do this, if they come out with flowers - fine, let them come out, my hat's off. Any protest, any activity, any display of civic engagement - this is fine.

- What can and should be done now for those who are behind bars? They are Maryja Kalesnikava, Mikalai Statkevich, Viktar Babaryka...

- It is necessary not to leave the streets, it is necessary not to slow down the pace of protests. We see that the authorities are afraid only of this. We must not get absorbed by the bureaucracy, we must not get absorbed by mythical conversations about a possible dialogue, about a possible reform of the Constitution - all this will only prolong the agony of the regime and only prolong the stay of political prisoners in prisons.

I believe that only the firmest position and only continuous protests will eventually lead to the regime crash. As long as the regime exists, people will stay in jail. Yes, the names can change: he may release Statkevich and imprison someone else. I would like to remind you that just on Thursday, European Belarus activists Pavel Yukhnevich, Yauheny Afnahel and Andrei Voynich were detained. They were not detained for 15 days, but were detained in a criminal case - on mass riots. Therefore, the number of political prisoners is increasing, so we need to increase our own efforts and the severity of our protests in direct proportion.

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