What does this remind you of? “X was charged under Article 339, part 2, with
hooliganism, and with the organisation of group activities (Article 342,
part 1), and was sentenced to five and a half years imprisonment.”
The clue is the combination of the oddly unlegalistic “hooliganism” and the
catch-all unmeaning of “group activities” punctiliously proscribed under
article-this and article-that.
Remember it now? This was the language of Soviet-style justice in the USSR and
wherever ran the Kremlin’s writ in Eastern Europe. It was where George
Orwell met Lewis Carroll (“ ‘When I use a word’, said Humpty Dumpty in a
rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean.’ ”), so that
“hooliganism” might mean signing a protest or giving a private seminar on
Aristotle. (I’m not being satirical: the Oxford philosopher Anthony Kenny
was deported from Czechoslovakia for hooliganism, and a seminar on Aristotle
was his group activity.)
However, the “X” in the paragraph above received his prison sentence only last
year, in a Minsk district court in Belarus. His name is Alexander Kazulin,
formerly rector of the Belarusian state university and, more pertinently,
leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party.
Seventeen years after the dissolution of the Communist Party of the USSR,
democracy’s travails in the new Russia take a different, modern-day form,
but one corner of the former Soviet Union is stuck in a time warp. Here you
will find the last KGB of the old empire, the last collective farms and the
last dictator in Europe, President Alexander Lukashenko.
Amnesty International called Kazulin’s trial “flagrantly unfair” and has
adopted him as a prisoner of conscience, among several others including
Zmitser Dashkevich, the leader of a youth opposition movement, who is
currently serving 18 months.
Tomorrow evening at Amnesty’s office in Shoreditch the Belarusian prisoners of
conscience will be supported by a public meeting and the screening of a
documentary, A Belarusian Lesson, to mark the first anniversary of
Lukashenko’s re-election, which received widespread international criticism.
The EU at the time condemned the state violence against opposition
demonstrators, and last May issued visa bans and froze the assets of
Lukashenko and more than 30 of his associates.
The 50-minute film is centred on a young man, Franak Vyachorka, who will be on
the platform. He was just coming up to his 18th birthday at the time of the
election. His father was in prison, his crime being the founding and running
of an “unofficial” school which taught in the Belarusian language.
Lukashenko, President since 1994, had demoted the language in favour of
Russian. The President closed the school in 2003. “The fact that we speak
Belarusian is a protest,” Vyachorka says in the film. “It is not normal to
be a natural-born oppositionist,” he adds. “It is normal to be a normal
person in your normal free country.”
Lukashenko also got rid of the Belarusian flag, or tried to: the white banner
with the red stripe can be seen all over the documentary, waved by thousands
of mostly young people in the mass protest that followed the rigged
election, before phalanxes of police with shields and truncheons cleared
October Square in the capital Minsk after four days.
I had received running reports of these events at the time, e-mailed by some
friends I had made — members of a banned theatre group — on a visit to Minsk.
On March 17, Natasha and Kolia wrote: “We really want to believe that miracle
could happen and our country will become free on March 20.”
On March 22: “We stayed already [in the square] for two nights. It is very
cold here, but people are really inspired. It was very difficult to stay the
first night. The square is surrounded by special forces. They arrested more
than 100 ordinary people who were trying to bring tents, blankets and food.
They were arresting people in underground and empty streets. They know that
journalists are on the square and nobody will see it . . . The main thing
that happens these days, people are overcoming their fear.”
March 24: “This is absolutely awful. We stayed four nights. We left at two
o’clock am to sleep a few hours, and in one hour we received a call that the
camp is ruined and all people are arrested. We are absolutely exhausted but
there will be an action tomorrow.”
March 25: “Just to let you know we are okay. The explosion that you see on BBC
is the sound grenade. We were right there. Now all of us cannot hear well
but it should be better in a few days. One of our [Free Theatre] people was
severely beaten up. Now all of us are at home. Don’t worry.”
A year later — a week ago on Sunday — 10,000 people turned up for an
opposition rally in Minsk. Riot police blocked October Square, letting
through only people with tickets for Swan Lake at the Republic
Palace. George Orwell, meet Monty Python. They split the march into three
columns. One was led by the man who stood against Lukashenko a year ago,
Alexander Milinkevich. He was among those who were physically assaulted on
Sunday.
Franak’s father, who had earlier completed his prison sentence, was there. He
had been rearrested 12 days earlier, held overnight, and was due to be tried
on Friday last week. Ominously or coincidentally, the case was postponed
until Wednesday, the day after the Amnesty evening. (Though it should be
emphasised that Amnesty does not take a political position on Belarus — the
interest is only in human rights.)
Vyachorka Sr, who was arrested for swearing, told Radio Free Europe: “I link
both my arrest and my release to confusion in the heads of current
officials. They have no single concept of what to do . . . Some of them
believe it is necessary to suppress and whack people as usual. The others
think that it is necessary to make at least some gestures towards Europe,
otherwise it will be quite bad.”
The EU has made Belarus its business, and is offering entry in exchange for
Belarus adopting European standards on a slate of freedoms. Lukashenko, the
former manager of a collective farm, who has manipulated the constitution to
keep himself in office, shows no sign of being tempted. He has his problems
with his other powerful neighbour (President Putin recently doubled the
price of the gas supply) but Russia in its present mode has no problem with
his Humpty Dumpty way with words, or with his “democratic republic”, which
has more policemen per head than anywhere else in the world.
— A Belarusian Lesson will be screened tomorrow at Amnesty
International UK, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2. Tom Stoppard and Franak
Vyachorka will be on the platform. Admission free. Limited tickets available
at: www.amnesty.org.uk/events
Is Mr Laycock from Canada having a laugh or what.....
A.T. Martin, Warsaw , Poland
Who is Tom Stoppard?
Robert Bishop, sydney, australia
I must confess that the statement “X was charged under Article 339, part 2, with hooliganism, and with the organisation of group activities (Article 342, part 1)" reminds me of the ASBO situation in Britain. It may well be that Britain uses the ASBOs justly and that the Belarus laws are used unjustly. Unfortunately, however, I cannot infer that from the statement itself, as Mr. Stoppard seems to suggest.
henry laycock, kingston, canada
Belarus is a dying country - young people leave as soon as they can. Lukashenko fixed the last election and all the ones before that.
My wish is to return home to Minsk but that is impossible - I will be arrested for the severe offence of setting up a website for individuals in Belarus to express their views on political events in the country. This is regarded as treason!
The only hope we have is that as relations with Russia get worse and worse the economy will finally collapse and the ridiculous government falls. My country is drifting without direction as the leaders look after themselves and their cronies - the time has come for real change even if it will be uncomfortable.
Sergei, London, England
We need to be "sensible and calm" in our dealings with oppresive, brutal and murderous regimes, then, they may well look towards us as role models, becoming, by some mysterious process of osmosis, models of enlightened governance themselves.
Let's not be beastly to Mr Lukashenko, after all he is probably misunderstood, or maybe it's because he is shy.
So let's all be sensible, sit on our hands, keep our mouths firmly shut and wait for those pigs to fly.
Mark Lyndon, London, UK
I think the tone of this article is a great pity. The economy of Belarus has been growing and it has, in the view of the International Labor Organization, been improving both its laws and track record on acceptance of public protests and trade union recognition. Belarusians may not share an entirely common language with Russia, but they do share a national psyche which is proud has not enjoyed the general mockery of the West since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now that Russia threatens to seriously damage the economy of Belarus by doubling the price of gas (of which Belarus has none) there is a real opportunity to engage with Belarus and its Government and so bring about real social and economic changes in the country through engagement with the West. The Belarusian Government may not be acceptable, but taunting them at this time is not the route to change - we in the west need to sensibly and calmly involve both the carrot and the stick here, not just the stick.
Mark, London, UK
How can a Department of Education chose not to teach two major events in world history? Every ethnic group has done some horrible things in history, if we start my not teaching the Crusades and the Holocaust when will it stop? Maybe the slave trade should be next! The only reason given was so as not to offend some groups.
Frank Simms, Slidell, LA USA
I had hoped such goofy acts had been dumped into the dustbin of history during the 1990s and existed only in such isolated places like North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, and some other countries with reprobate regeimes, but it is sad to see that this is going on in Europe in the early part of the 21st century. Maybe continued selective punishment by the EU of Lukashenko and his top associates will crack the leadership and bring about peaceful change. Let's hope so! And let's hope cell phones, the internet, and other trans-national wonders will help overcome this throwback to the horrors of the 20th century. These actions really have no place in today's world.
James, Jacksonville, Illinois U. S.
I adopted my son from Belarus in 2003. Since then Lukashenko has cut off all adoptions to America. This is such a tragedy. While staying in Belarus I found the people very helpful and friendly. However, visiting the orphanage puts a face on just one of the consequenses of this backwards political system. I thank God for getting my son out of Belarus, but I hurt deeply for all those other children who will live out their lives without hope. "Politics" effects the most vulnerable, the children without a voice.
Tom Shiskovsky, Foothill Ranch, CA
Excellent article on an issue that should be on the political front burner of the European Union and every free nation. This is the same regime that blasted a hot air baloon out of the sky some years back, killing several baloon enthsiasts who strayed of course. Lukashenka's dictatorship is not only cruel but woefully inept and paranoid.
Stanley Vanagunas, Tucson, USA
Thank you for this annoucement. I would strongly recommend anyone to go and see a Belarussian lesson by Mirsowlaw Dembinsk, it is a very authentic documentary. Of course the situation in Belarus is more complicated than just what it been explained in the article but true some people are trying hard to get rid of Loukachenka and have their basic Human rights respected. We can't but encourage them, let them know we support them, that we think of them and report to our citizens in Western Europe of what's going on there, otherwise hope could simply fade away.
Bienvenu, paris, France
I have my comment on Kundera as posted here before it was taken down. The books people who did "The Curtain" need a talking to. I think that Sir Peter Stothard is exceptionally intelligent and respects his readers. I'll know what to think from now on of the Kundera experts at www.timesonline.co.uk books section, the two of them who did "The Curtain" thing that I have complained about. Thanks for the post, as brief as it was.
Clayton Burns, Vancouver B.C., Canada
Good point about the hooliganism of Anthony Kenny. I suspected it all along. But what about hooliganism and incipient Stalinism at your own paper? KGB-like the Kundera marketing unit in your books section failed to post my comment about "The Curtain," a foolish book if one has ever been published. See my comments at Sir Peter Stothard's blog March 2nd 2007 at "Like W.H. Auden"?Somehow I knew it would happen that way. Good luck in ferreting out sovietism in other spheres.
Clayton Burns PhD, Vancouver B.C., Canada