Maryna Adamovich: Statkevich is not fighting with opposition; he inoculates it

Ex-presidential candidate Mikola Statkevich who remains in prison in his letters keeps asking questions that haven’t yet been answered.

And the answers to these questions can remove politicians with tarnished reputation from democratic forces, told the wife of the political prisoner Maryna Adamovich to the EuroBelarus Information Service.

According to her, in his recent letters Mikola Statkevich tries to explain why he is bringing some questions up for discussion: “He made a shrewd reasoning: this is not about fighting within opposition, this is an inoculation. Because without looking into the situation that emerged two years ago we won’t be able to prevent similar situation from happening in the future and won’t be able to identify those people who have already discredited themselves”.

In one of his last letters Mikola Statkevich wrote to his wife that he is sorry for involving her in this fighting. However, he says that “it is necessary, because it is already next year when the presidential campaign will start and we can’t let those who disgraced themselves in the previous campaign participate or influence it. And it will be useful for the potential candidates to know that their actions will be publicly looked into”.

The wife of the political prisoner gets irritated when her husband is advised to write a clemency application: “This misunderstanding of the situation appears not that often. However, some people even say that he was ordered to write these letters”.

It is also not very pleasant for Maryna Adamovich to hear that some political bargaining on political prisoners between Lukashenka and the EU is going on: “I can’t say that it is unpleasant for me to hear that. It’s about the objective reality; and it would be very naïve to think that this question will never be raised. But I want to recall once more that Mikola Statkevich said in his last plea in court: don’t offer money for our discharge, as there will be new hostages afterwards. But I can thank the EU for they strive to adhere to their position. They continue declaring that the relations can be unfrozen only when the demands of the EU are fulfilled. And these demands today are coming down to the release of the political prisoners and their rehabilitation. Still unimaginable intensification of all sorts of negotiations testifies to the ongoing search of compromise”.

According to Maryna Adamovich, “Europeans have done a lot merely by announcing and permanently adhering to joint position, though they never imposed any national sanctions on Belarus. The EU never declared the actions’ program for the Belarusan regime: if you don’t fulfill these commitments, then we do the next step. The EU should develop such strategy step-by-step”.

The wife of Mikola Statkevich wishes someone in Belarus got interested in sincere dialog: “I assume that if under two years six discharged presidential candidates didn’t find it necessary to look into the mistakes so that to avoid them in the future, then in makes us draw sad and serious conclusions”.

“Of course, this topic includes a lot of personal issues, - notes Maryna Adamovich, - but on the whole, people don’t want to admit their own mistakes. Even if this truth could help to avoid grave mistakes in the future. And, unfortunately, I don’t see political will or mere human ability to admit their mistakes, delusions and excessive ambition. And this is why I took Mikola’s decision to make them start this dialog so painfully. As it is evident that if nothing happened under two years it means that the days for this dialog have gone. I was too well aware that it will happen very painfully, though the truth is not that awful. Every person has a right to be weak in some situation. But obviously, these human weaknesses prevent some people from saying the truth right now”.