Who is responsible for the victory of the dictatorship in Belarus?

(Appeal to the leadership of the European Union and the OSCE)

During 2004 the anti-popular and illegitimate Lukashenka regime prepared its illegitimate «referendum» and «electoral campaign». At the same time the Conservative Christian Party - BPF appealed several times the Belarusan society and the political parties of Belarus notifying in advance the plans of the pro-Moscow dictatorship. Long before the start of the electoral campaign we have seen the danger of these plans: the regime would combine the referendum on the anti-constitutional questions and the elections to the «chamber of representatives» of the Lukashenka pseudo-parliament. We explained that the regime has the unique object - to preserve the power of Lukashenka. In order to do it the regime has decided to attract and to force the electors to the polling rooms using all the methods. Because of that the authorities have combined the elections and the illegitimate referendum. Already then we have declared that the society has the necessary method of the resistance against the dictatorship in this situation - i.e. the national boycott of the electoral farce and the illegitimate referendum. Namely the boycott (the electors shouldn’t come to the polling rooms) would not permit the regime to fraud impudently the poll. During 2004 we directed our explanations and appeals several times to the international society, the leadership of the European Union and the OSCE. Unfortunately our warnings remained unheard, our information has been treated as not important. But the boycott could be based only on the common forces. October 17 the events have happened which we had foreseen and warned the society and the politicians (the politicians have a duty to be able to foresee the results of the events and of their own actions). The anti-Belarusan dictatorship has combined the electoral farce with the illegitimate referendum, brutally forced millions of persons to go to the polling stations and falsified the poll. This brutal action has been executed by the dictatorship in presence and with the participation of the foreign observers from the OSCE.

We appealed the international organization not to send their observers to the electoral farce in Belarus. When the observers had came to Belarus our Party has proposed to recall them urgently and not to participate in the impudent show of the dictatorship (the Appeal of our Party «Don’t Play With The Dictatorship «Democracy» from October 3, 2004). Even when it became known that the regime has begun to swindle (the electors should sign the common list of the elections and of the referendum - it was not possible to come to the elections and to refuse to participate in the anti-constitutional referendum) the OSCE didn’t recall its observers. The OSCE has declared that «the observers will observe only the elections and will not observe the referendum». (But the referendum took place at the same time, on the same place, with the participation of the same electors and of the same electoral commissions). A modern authoritative international organization like the OSCE doesn’t have right to make such demagogic declarations, such scholastic is inadmissible on the beginning of the 21st century.

The anti-democratic regime has organized the electoral farce exclusively in accordance with its rules. The regime controlled the mass media. The so-called «independent newspapers» were controlled by the KGB for a long time. These mass media together with the official propaganda appealed actively the Belarusan people to participate in the electoral farce using the demagogic slogans: «The Belarusan people has right to the democratic elections! Let us say NO to the dictatorship!» Some small groups (which call themselves «the democratic political parties») have presented their candidates to the electoral farce, founded the coalitions and appealed the electors to participate in the electoral deception. These «parties» have performed once more the role of the provocateurs attracting the electors to the polling rooms. The regime has used the provocateurs and then rejected them like the unnecessary waste (it is know that nobody from these «democratic candidates» had been permitted to become the pseudo-MP of the Lukashenka pseudo-parliament). But the political adventurers have fulfilled their task - thanks to them the farce was presented as «the democratic competition».

It was necessary to organize the international boycott and the isolation of the Lukashenka regime and not to permit to Lukashenka to deceive and intimidate the Belarusan people. But the OSCE has assisted to creation of the external «democratic» entourage of the electoral process. Now after the electoral farce it is possible to criticize and accuse the regime because of the violence and the electoral frauds. But the moment has been just lost. Now the regime doesn’t need the international recognition of the legitimacy of its elections and referendum. Now Lukashenka (he heads the pro-Russian dictatorship in Belarus) bases his arguments on the «people’s support» and the «people’s will». The regime has used cynically the OSCE as well as the pseudo-opposition in order to secure the democratic appearance of the electoral farce.

The system of the electoral frauds functioned with the unprecedented intensity. For the first time since the Soviet period the regime has organized the total intimidation of the electors in the whole country. The directors of the factories and rectors of the high schools acted in direct contact with the local electoral commissions and controlled every elector intimidating the persons by the repressions. The citizens forced to go to the polling stations voted against the regime - this fact has been established by all the independent opinion polls. But the regime had secured the necessary number of the electors on the polling stations and has received the freedom of the manoeuvre in order to fraud the poll in proper favour.

The persons which appealed to boycott the electoral farce have been illegally arrested, fined and imprisoned. We communicated on the brutal repressions used by the authorities during the electoral campaign against the members of the Conservative Christian Party - BPF. But the OSCE didn’t react on our information and appeals. The facts of the repressions against the members of our Party were not mentioned in the reports of the OSCE International Election Observation Mission. What is it - the political blindness, the double standards of the estimation, the influence by the Russian lobbies?

We hope that the OSCE will urgently help to release from jail Mr. Uladzimier PLESHCHANKA, the member of the Conservative Christian Party - BPF. He has been illegally arrested on October 16, 2004 in Vitebsk because he had expressed his opinion on the boycott of the electoral farce. He has been illegally sentenced to 10 days in jail (during the last month Mr. Pleshchanka has been imprisoned by the regime two times for 10 days). Mr. Pleshchanka has a heart illness. He has collapsed in jail, his life is in danger. It is necessary to help to Mr. Uladzimier Pleshchanka - steadfast fighter for the democracy. During the last years he has suffered many times because of his struggle for the human rights and the freedom of Belarus.

A huge crime has been committed in Belarus. The Lukashenka regime has deceived the Belarusan people, violated the Belarusan and international laws. Now the international society is considering the question of the international isolation of the executors of this crime. We appeal to organize the international isolation of the anti-democratic Lukashenka regime, of its structures and functionaries responsible for the violations of the Law. But at the same time it would be inadmissible to isolate the Belarusan people - the victim of the regime. It would be inadmissible to stop the humanitarian and other programs on behalf of the ordinary citizens of Belarus.

The leadership of the Conservative Christian Party - BPF

21/10/2004 › English