Bericht van de Barricaden, Minsk, Wit-Rusland

Een emotioneel bericht vandaag van ons contact tijdens de demonstraties in Wit-Rusland. De dictatuur van Lukashenko brak gisteren een vreedzame demonstratie tegen de laatste dictatuur in Europa met harde hand op. Doordat de demonstranten hun strijd onder de aandacht van de wereld wisten te brengen via het internet – onder andere Sargasso deed regelmatig verslag – lijkt nu ook eindelijk de politiek in beweging te komen. De EU dreigde met sancties tegen Wit-Rusland vanwege het gewelddadige optreden.

update 24 maart:
“Het regime heeft de kiezers geergerd. Zij vernietigden het Kamp van de Vrijheid in de afgelopen nacht, ze sleepten ons door de modder, onze spandoeken en tenten. Meer dan 300 verdedigers van het kamp werden geslagen en gearresteerd. Het regime vernedert ons voortdurend in de gecontrolleerde media. Verneder Lukashenko voor ons. Hij nam kennis van alle informatie over de betogingen in de wereld. Hopelijk vreet zijn paranoia hem op!
Het spijt me, ik kan mijn emoties niet onder controle houden, mijn geboren broer verdedigde het kamp in de nacht en is gearresteerd.”

update 24 maart, 8.22am:
Belarus-voice van het gelijknamige weblog vertaalde het Russische dagboek van een demonstrante op het October Plein in Minsk. Het inside verhaal lees je in het engels op belarus-voice.

Dnevnik devushki s ploschadi (moi perevod na angliski)
Diary of a brave one
“Even if I am ok, it might be not for any longer. I do not nourish any illusions. If they held me today for 2 hours & let me go it does not mean democracy came to our country.
They are just afraid to make a mess right now, when there are so many foreign journalists in the city. These are the people from Reitar, Polish TV & other mass media – only their presence can protect us.”

Read the whole diary of a protester in Minsk:

March 20

I am writing these lines on the 22nd of March, 12:48AM. In the last 24 hours I slept only 2 hours. An hour-and-a-half ago I was released from the police station. I still don’t know where my brother is, who tried to bring food to people standing on the square. People are still standing on October Square in the circle around little “tent town” tightly holding each other’s hands to protect the tents with their bodies. It’s minus 10 in Minsk… Many of them have been standing for 15 hours already. And some of them more than 24 hours…

For these two days I have grown up by 10 years. These days probably have changed my life more than I can understand now. In these days I found out what it means to step over the Fear, what it means to Love, and what it means to Hate. And what it is like when your life is being ruined. This is what I feel and will never, never be able to forget. And probably will not be able to forgive…

I’m writing here truth and nothing but truth… I was among the first dozen of people who started setting up the tents on October Square in front of TV and photo cameras. All this just happened to me. And now it’s too late, because I will be put in jail, and it won’t be just 15 days of arrest. But nevertheless, I don’t regret my decision…

Back to October Square. While Alexander Millenkivich was standing on the stairs of the Palace of Professional Unions…, the most important event was happening in the middle of the crowd. The first tents were set on the ground, my tent was among them. About five people started setting them up, but at the same moment large guys with fat, rude faces wearing black hats jumped out of the crowd. They were furiously smashing tents with their feet, taking away sleeping bags and hitting people who resisted. They were acting is an orderly manner… After this attack, people decided to form a human wall around us, connecting their elbows into a chain. They pushed away everybody who tried to break through. There were lots of police and KGB officers dressed in normal clothes. They stood around in groups, some of them put on our “For Freedom” badges and tried to sneak inside the circle.

Behind this human wall, we were setting up our tents. I was standing in this wall and remember very clearly the moment I was called by a friend of mine to help with the tents. I hesitated a while but then stepped inside and started helping with a tent. I didn’t have any special feelings or emotions at that moment. The shock came later. First I was hiding my face under my hood because there were many TV and photo cameras directed at our faces. Then I decided that it was a half decision – and I took off my hood. We set up the tents, folded out our sleeping bags and sat on them. This is when I suddenly realized WHAT WE DID. I realized that my previous life, at this very moment is running away just like sand through your fingers… My job in the scientific journal, my friends, my books, my parents. And my beloved Minsk, and Belarus, and probably my freedom. I was trying to hide my tears under my hood so that journalists would not see them… Then I calmed down: what’s done is done. There is no way back. There was just one thing I wanted to do. I called up my friend with whom I was in love and told him that I love him. I wanted to do it for a long time but did not have enough courage. Now there was nothing to lose.

In the beginning there were many people around in a dense human circle. There was music and many journalists came to interview us. I talked to EuroNews, journalists from Jeorgia and Russian NTV. I was not very excited about doing that, but they picked me from the crowd. After 11 PM the music was turned off, because local laws prohibit playing music at night. We tried to obey all possible laws. Because we knew that even the smallest violation will be used against us… At midnight many people started to leave to catch the last subway train. In spite of that, the human circle was still standing strong, very strong.

At night we received thermoses of hot tea brought by elderly women and men from the nearby apartment buildings. From the very beginning it was hard to reach us. The police stopped and turned back everybody who tried to bring food, tea or sleeping bags to October Square. But people managed somehow to do that. I remember two elderly women who brought 3 thermoses with hot water. They kissed us and said they would pray for us. Close to the morning a very old man came with an old shrugged plastic bag. There were sausages and bread inside. He said: “Sorry it is so little but it’s all I could find in my fridge”…

What were we doing in the middle of the circle? Walked, talked to each other, and sang songs. The first song we sang was “Beautiful Future”. It felt as this song was about us. Some people from the radio gave us the microphone and recorded us. My voice broke on the lines: “I hear a voice from the future and that voice is asking me: What are you doing today for the beautiful future?” I will try to remember singing this song within a human circle protecting us with their bodies…

It’s a LIE that our protest is anti-Russian. We protest against lies and the dictatorship, against rigged elections and disappearance of people. And against Soviet Union, who is grabbing us from its deep grave… The average age of people gathered on October Square is around 24, my own age. Some of them are younger – they still study. There are also older people, mostly strong guys in the human wall. In general, we have more men than women.

We were constantly filmed and photographed… We stored food and warm clothes in two tents in the middle. When I was bringing hot tea to the people in the human wall, somebody gave me two bunches of flowers. We put them in the jar. Somebody put an icon nearby. We placed two big candles at the icon. We tried to keep this central space with the icon in order… We spent very few time in the middle of the circle. As soon as we got hot tea or coffee, we poured it into cups and gave to people from the human wall…

March 21

At night it was freezing cold. Especially for the people in the wall who were covering us from the wind. These were tremendous people. I want to kneel for them. They where making a dense circle from themselves in that frost, all night long. They were standing for 14 hours or more on the same place, they couldn’t move or go away. At night they brought to us a very young guy, who did not have warm clothes. He could hardly speak. We gave him hot tea and rubbed his hands (he had no gloves on)…

We had also to solve a little problem. A very prosaic one – the toilet. Of coyrse, people from nearby apartments would let us in. But we could not get there. We were surrounded by the police. All entries and exits were blocked. I saw with my own eyes caravans of police cars full of OMON members (riot police) and buses that carry arrested people. If we would leave the circle, it would be it for us… Finally, we solved the problem. Somebody managed to open a hatch with his bare hands. The hatch was on the side of the square close to the road. We put a tent over it and made it our toilet. It smelled terribly from the hatch. To cheer up people I said: “Did you think the revolution smelled like roses?!” On Belarusian TV they said that the opposition created a toilet nearby the Second World War museum on purpose. It’s ridiculous!!! The museum is so far away from our place that if we would go there, we would not come back.

I need to mention another lie. It is so awkward – but many people in Belarus believe it. First, the media said we were paid to stay on the square. First they named an amount of 20 000 Belarusian rubble (about 10$). Then they realized it didn’t looked credible and “increased” our salary to 50$. Oh my God! Let the people who believe this lie come to the square and try to stand here all day long. 14 hours of standing in the frost and waiting for the sunrise… To see the circle getting smaller and smaller because people can’t take it anymore, they go home to sleep and there is no one to take over. Every moment wait for a police attack or provocation. And know that probably tomorrow they will kick you out from the university or fire you or put you in jail.

Yes, in the morning there were very few of us. When at 6 AM the first bus #100 passed nearby, we came up with a new idea. The side of the circle, facing the passing buses was kneeling down to show the tents and yelling in “Daluchaites’”, which means “join us” in Belarusian, until they physically could not do it anymore. We were desperately waiting for help, because there were so few of us!!! But by 9 AM we knew that the circle would survive as new people were joining the circle. When we were brining them food & hot tea they were saying: “thank you, we are just from home”. At 9 AM I felt very bad and decided to leave the square with my friend Pasha. We found the moment when police did not look, ran and jumped on the bus#100. Sveta & Tanja stayed there for the third day without sleep.

We slept a couple of hours at Pasha’s place and then went to our jobs. It’s so weird: you have changed and your life has changed but some things remain usual. It seemed that nobody knew anything at my work. One more day I could pamper myself with the illusion that my ordered and comfortable life is continuing… Then, I went home to change my clothes and shoes to something warmer. I decided to go to October Square, though I had doubts it was a wise decision. I caught cold and really wanted to have some sleep and to write my diary. Otherwise, if I would be arrested tomorrow, I wouldn’t be able to write it. But anyway, I decided to go. I put a sleeping bag under my coat, sowed it to my sweater and tied it with a scotch tape. I was stopped on the October Square subway station. The reason – the police noticed a sleeping bag under my coat. I was asked for my documents and told to follow a police officer to the police station. There I had to “strip” some of my clothes, take out everything from my handbag. I tried to stay calm and be nice…

Then KGB officers dressed in something dark and very casual entered to the police station. They had OUR badges “For Freedom” on their chests! They behave as if they were owners of this police station… They were digging in my stuff, looked for a long time at my passport… First they wanted to write an arrest report and send me to another police station. But one of the KGB agents said: “Send her away, to those idiots on the square. Otherwise, while we’ll be transporting her our comrades will finish the tastiest food”. I have never felt more pain and hatred. I wanted to kill that fat pig who arrests us and eats our food, brought to the square by people risking to be arrested. The food distributed by frozen hands of my friends who have been standing on the square for 48 hours without sleep. I can not forget and forgive it. God, if you are there! Send me to hell if you want. But do just one thing! Make a miracle so that next piece of food will get stuck in his throat forever…

I do not have any illusions. They held me today for 2 hours and let me go, but it does not mean that democracy came to our country. They are just afraid to make a mess right now, when there are so many foreign journalists in the city… Only their presence can protect us…

March 22

I need to wrap up my diary and return to the square. Everyone is calling me, they saw me on EuroNews and NTV…
I hope I will be able to post my diary on internet, from a nearby internet cafe. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. I want to ask those who are reading my diary: People, come to the square, stand with us! “Daluchaytes/Join us!”
If you are far away, spread my diary so that as many people as possible could read it. If you can not stand with us, please REMEMBER how it was and tell it to others.
Just in case, farewell to everyone.