About Love And Darkness

"Left unexamined on the merits."

Imagine that you are in total darkness. It seems that now your eyes will get used to it and begin to distinguish silhouettes of people and outlines of objects, but nothing happens. Eyes do not get used to it. All around - the same pitch darkness, thick and heavy.

At the same time you know for sure that there are people in the darkness. You shout at the top of your voice, calling for help, asking for help. But no one responds. No one answers. No one even moves, lest a slight rustle suddenly become your reference point. Everyone is frozen in darkness, and only one person is fumbling and screaming. This person is Marina Adamovich, the wife of Nikolai Statkevich.

Marina always knew for sure that even the whole nation could be forcibly taken to Lithuania or another country, but not Statkevich. How he will be able to stay in Belarus is another problem: improvisation and lightning-fast decision in a concrete situation, when there is no time to calculate and think something over. So the question whether Nikolai would agree to go to Lithuania was relevant for anyone but her. And given his numerous arrests and stages from prison to prison throughout their life together, Marina always had a clear algorithm of actions in any situation. The experience of searching for Nikolai in the prisons of Belarus had taught her a lot. Only this time the algorithm did not work. Because Lukashenko's freaks crossed the very line, to which a normal Homo sapiens cannot even approach.

After the disappearance of Nikolai from the Belarusian-Lithuanian border she waited for a short time: the hope that her husband would still be able to make himself known, dissolved quickly. And Marina filed a report on the disappearance of a person, as it should be. If earlier such applications were accepted after three days, now, on the contrary, police officials convince people that it is not worth waiting 72 hours, it is better to apply immediately if you suspect that a relative has been in trouble: this way there is a better chance of finding the person. Marina applied to the administration of colony No. 13, where Nikolai was taken from, and to the Department of Corrections - in short, to all addresses. For many years of her husband's prison terms, her actions have almost reached automatism.

And two days ago in the personal cabinet on the site "Appeals.bel" the status of "in execution" changed to "left without consideration on the merits". Almost simultaneously - for appeals to both the colony and the Department of Internal Affairs. They were labeled "without sending a response. It took them 22 days to "change the status".

And in theory they could easily start the whole mess all over again, with all the replies, with skillfully woven words. They could, for example, have opened a new case - for illegal border crossing, let's say. Did you have a passport? There was no passport, that's the whole case. And then - pre-trial detention center, packages, lawyer, letters, court. People would eventually calm down: yes, Statkevich's personal choice, it's okay, he's used to it. There would have appeared new information occasions, new expelled political prisoners, new revelations of KGB agents in the emigrant structures, new items on the agenda. And Nikolai Statkevich would have become one of many politzeks. (The most reasonable thing would have been, of course, to simply let the man into Belarus and forget about him altogether. It could have caused a negative reaction among people, which the regime wanted: they say that everyone is taken away, but he was allowed to stay and did nothing, why is he better than others? However, in our case we are not talking about reasonableness at all.)

But the Belarusian punishers, having kidnapped Statkevich and hiding him from the eyes of the people in an unknown place, created an image of a leader, whose equal was unrivaled in Belarus. They created the image of a titan, an atlante, a bogatyr. However, Nikolai has always been such, but not everyone knew about it. Now everyone knows it.

And that's why I will not write about Nikolai once again. Because in the situation in which his family found themselves, we can only say one thing: the regime is also taking revenge on Marina. For not leaving. For not trying to persuade her husband to go to Lithuania when he was briefly given a phone. For persisting in his search. For the fact, after all, that they themselves will never have such wives: they will run away at the first alarm signal.

A Marina wanders by feel in the darkness. All around is darkness and silence, as if she were in space. But she knows exactly where she's going and who she's looking for. Nikolai knows it too. He just can't go towards her now: the bars won't let him in.

Irina Khalip, especially for Charter97.org.

You can support the website Charter97.org

MULTI-CURRENCY ACCOUNT FOR ASSISTANCE:

Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.
Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, Warszawa
IBAN: PL97116022020000000216711123
SWIFT: BIGBPLPW
Name of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”
Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aims

You can contact us by the e-mail [email protected]