Shushkevich: Dictator understands only language of force

• 10.02.2011, 10:33

The European Union has a real possibility to bring serious pressure on Lukashenka’s regime.

In January the European Union announced it imposes sanctions against the authoritarian Belarusian regime in response to “mass arrests and crackdown on representatives of the civil society representatives started during the presidential election.”

The first head of Belarus, which became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Stanislau Shushkevich, who has arrived to Brussels for this occasion, told to Journal Europa about his point of view on the too mild policy of the European Union towards the last dictatorship of Europe.

- How could you explain such a long period of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s power?

- What is a dictatorship? It’s a regime which rests on extreme centralization and cruelty of power. Lukashenka was elected in a democratic way in 1994, and since then he remains in control with the help of electoral fraud. The first and the last really democratic election in Belarus took place in 1994. After that Lukashenka managed to consolidate all power in his hands, not without Russia’s help. When in 1996 the parliament tried to start a process of Lukashenka’s impeachment, 3 representatives of Russia undertook mediation in negotiations, however in reality they simply helped to reinforce the dictatorship.

- How could behaviour of the Belarusian nation be explained? In all appearances they do not express great indignation over deterioration of the situation.

- You should understand that we differ from French, and the roots of these differences go back to history. The situation is also explained by the geographic position of Belarus, as it is situated in the region from which heavy toll was taken on it by all conflicts in Europe. One should not also forget that in proportion to its population, more people in Belarus died during the Second World War that in any other country. This scenario repeated during introduction of the Soviet troops to Afghanistan: Belarus lost more soldiers than any other nation of the Soviet Union. Such a history, which often developed into tragic events, has taught Belarusians one thing: to survive. We can do that better than anyone else!

Thus, the history has formed the nation, who have to look for ways to survive in any situation no matter what external events are. This quality is so strong that if a famine would be organized by external forces, like in Ukraine in 1930, I think Belarusians would find a possibility to find an answer to it. The main aim was always survival, and the situation has not changed now. Such a traumatizing history suppresses a desire to assert themselves and slows down a national self-identity formation.

- Could it be said that the Orange revolution, which has turned sour in the end, has repelled Belarusians from repeating the same scenario in their country? It a relative weakness of the popular movement after the election explained by that?

- I cannot say that the popular movement in Belarus was weak. Considering peculiarities of Belarus, where participants of demonstrations face grave danger (policemen have vividly demonstrated that everyone is equal in front of repressions, as they had no mercy for the elderly and even to children who were present there), it is a real success to draw together 30-40 thousand people. There is one more important factor in that, Russia, which plays a significant role supporting Lukashenka.

- The European parliament has demonstrated its interest to Belarus by organizing a debate on this problem. Can Europe really influence the developments in Belarus?

- You know, I know Jerzy Buzek (The President of the European Parliament) personally for a long time, and when I arrived to Brussels, I asked myself how I would be able to explain him everything which had happened in Belarus from the moment of the election. However, I was very glad that my interlocutors have a very exact understanding of what is happening in my country in reality, so we could proceed to discussion immediately. That could not be said about other countries, we have to explain the events in detail before starting discussion on a possible counter-moves.

- How do you regard at the policy of the European Union Belarus, which for many years have been fluctuating between relentless approach and readiness for conciliatory measures?

- I hope that in the future the European Parliament will give up on establishing a dialogue with Lukashenka’s regime. It is clear that the current Chairman of the European Parliament is not going to move in the direction of any rapprochement with the Belarusian authorities. At the same time, the real problem is that no one knows exactly how to succeed in finding a durable and positive solution to the situation. Reaction of several European deputies, and primarily Poles, has moved me. We see that people show sympathy to us. However, reaction of deputies form other countries is a little frightening. I saw the first drafts of resolutions on Belarus… Will they be given a real weight or remain ink on paper? Time will tell.

- To your mind, what the stance of the European Union will be finally?

- I have talked to Mr.Füle, European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, and he explained to us that imposing sanctions against the Belarusian regime involves difficult procedures, and is consequently a long process. I understand that certainly, however a harsher European reaction is necessary. The dictator understands only the language of force, and I believe that Europe will find the ways to switch to this language.

Considering that 50% of Belarusian exports go to the European market, and almost all exporter enterprises are owned by the state, we have a practical possibility to apply a really heavy pressure by menacing to stop all deliveries to Europe. I hope that Europe would follow the example of the US which had imposed harsher sanctions against Lukashenka. Beside the travel ban for Lukashenka, the process of issuing visas for Belarusians should be facilitated simultaneously.

- Together with Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kravchuk, you are one of the three persons who expedited the collapse of the Soviet Union, and signed the document that the Soviet Union ceases to exist. For a long time you have been repeating that you are proud of that very much. However, looking at the authoritarian, and sometimes mafia-style regimes which have replaced the USSR, what are you thinking of that now?

- As before, I am proud of that, though I was just a person who organized the meeting which ended in such a highlight declaration. This document signed in December 1991 had many consequences. However, the thing which makes me even more proud is that while I was the leader of the state, I successfully insisted on turning Belarus into a nuclear-weapon-free state and returning all nuclear warheads, inherited from Soviet times, to Russia. Today everyone understands how important is that Lukashenka has no such armaments.