Holubeu: Belarusian Parliament eliminated 16 years ago
April 11 is the 16th anniversary of the opposition in the Supreme Council. Historian Valyantsin Holubeu has recalled the events for Euroradio.
Let us remind you that a group of deputies from the BPF opposition protested against the referendum aimed at changing the state symbols and the status of the Belarusian language. In Holubeu’s opinion (he was a deputy of the Supreme Council at that time), the parliamentary hunge-strike affected our country’s future.
Holubeu: “The hunger strike that started in the Supreme Council was not against the appointed referendum but against the attempt to put those proposals to a vote. We thought that it could not be done because the law itself did not allow to put them to a vote – the ballot proposals concerned the state symbols, the state language and ,as many people have already forgotten, the President’s right to dissolve the Supreme Council. The majority of deputies were put under pressure to make them accept Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s proposals. We had nothing else to do but use the extreme measure - a hunger-strike”.
KGB members tried to make the hunger-strikers agree at first. They entered the Supreme Council and threatened the deputies demanding them to stop the hunger-strike, recalls Holubeu.
Holubeu: “Masked members of special police troops entered the assembly hall of the Supreme Council at about 1 a.m. They twisted our arms, batoned us and delivered to different places in Minsk. The Belarusian Prosecutor’ Office started a criminal case in connection with the beating of deputies the following day. However, a representative of the President’s Administration stole all the documents. Everything that was happening at the assembly hall… Alyaksandr Lukashenka claimed the following day that everything that had happened had been recorded by several cameras and promised to show the videos. However, he did not dare to demonstrate the video of beating and it disappeared in the President’s Administration later”.
In Holubeu’s opinion, the new President elect eliminated the Parliament in Belarus by that action and there have been no fair elections in our country since then.
In the historian’s opinion, the events dating back to 16 years ago and the events of December 19 are similar. They demonstrate that fact that the Constitution and legality are being ignored.
Photo by: charter97.org
