Intelligence services wiretapped telephone conversations of the family of the deceased Bandarenka and aired them on TV, Lavrov met Lukashenko, representatives of religious confessions in Belarus continue to call for the cessation of violence, despite the threat of repression
26 November 2020 | BYHelp-Mediagroup
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov held a meeting in Minsk with Alexander Lukashenko and the head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Uladzimir Makei
Russian Minister of foreign affairs Sergey Lavrov conveyed greetings from Vladimir Putin during a Thursday meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and said that the Russian side is committed to the agreements reached during the 14 September summit in Sochi. Later, at a press conference following the visit, Lavrov specified that Moscow expects constitutional reform from Minsk.
Following the meeting with Alexander Lukashenko, Lavrov mentioned that Western countries demonstrate a hostile attitude towards Russia and Belarus and are actively trying to influence the internal processes of these two countries.
Member of the Coordination Council Pavel Latushka, in turn, addressed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with a request to explain to the Belarusian people what the “Sochi agreements” include and emphasized that the people of Belarus did not consent to the return of secret debts of Lukashenko to Putin.
The Coordination Council proposed the concept of reconciliation to the current officials
On the basis of the proposed Concept of national reconciliation, decisions will be made on which officials will remain at work after Lukashenko leaves.
Over the course of several months, many Belarusian civil servants have deliberately or under duress committed dozens and sometimes hundreds of crimes because of Alexander Lukashenko’s attempts to forcibly retain power.
The Coordination Council has drawn up a concept of national reconciliation to avoid a split in society after overcoming the political crisis and holding new elections. Persons who are currently in the administrative personnel or in state-controlled institutions and media will be able to continue working in their places as before, if they did not commit actions that caused harm to the life and health of citizens. Many civil servants today cannot freely express their opinions and promote new ideas because of outdated authoritarian power. The Coordination Council was created by the opposition in August 2020 with the aim of peaceful transit of power in the country through new elections.
The mother of the deceased Raman Bandarenka filed an application to open a criminal case on the facts of wiretapping and publishing her phone conversations
Raman Bandarenka’s mother Alena believes that listening to and publishing audio recordings of conversations between herself and her relatives violates article 28 of the Constitution of Belarus, article 19 of the law “on information, informatization and information protection” and article 9 of the CIS Convention on human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The state TV channel STV, on the evening of 25 November, aired a program by propagandist Ryhor Azaronak about the death of Raman Bandarenka under the title “Dancing on bones”. In the course of the story, audio recordings of telephone conversations between relatives of the murdered Bandarenka are also given in the form of unsubstantiated accusations. From these recordings taken out of the context of real conversations, the anchor concludes that the mother of Bandarenka was pressured by incomprehensible people, and the widow of the deceased allegedly calls the farewell ceremony a circus. At the same time, the story did not raise the question of who could be responsible for the death of a young man who died as a result of being beaten by unknown people.
Raman’s mother asks to establish who and with whose permission carried out the secret recording of her conversations, and on what basis they were transferred to Azaronak.
Miss Belarus 2008 Volha Khizhynkova received another 15 days of arrest
On 26 November, a trial was held for the third episode of participation of the Belarusian beauty and public activist Volha Khizhynkova in protest actions. The court sentenced Volha to another 15 days of arrest, based on the charge on photos in social networks and video footage for 25 October. However, as said by her lawyer, this punishment will not be combined with the previous ones. She is now due to be released on 11 December and will spend more than a month in custody. This year Khizhynkova openly opposed violence and called for new presidential elections. As a result, she was forced to leave the National school of beauty. During her arrest, security forces sprayed tear gas in a prisoner transporter, although only women were transported and none of them resisted.
Catholic bishops in Belarus have called for the cessation of violence, and a spokesman for the Belarusian Orthodox Church has written a letter of resignation
Belarusian Catholic bishops, in their open letter, call for an end to the violence and bloodshed that is currently taking place in Belarus, where people are tolerant and peaceful. They also said they join Pope Francis’ call for governments to listen to their citizens and ensure that human rights and civil liberties are respected. Representatives of the Church call for a peaceful dialogue “in compliance with God’s and human laws”. This call was joined by more than a hundred Catholic and Orthodox believers, among them, in addition to priests, religious artists, journalists, artists from Russia, Italy, Georgia, and the United States, in an open letter in support of Belarusians who are subjected to violence for participating in peaceful protests. Today all segments of the peaceful population of Belarus, including the clergy, are subjected to political persecution. The Prosecutor General’s office issued official warnings to two clergymen Yuri Kasabutski and BOC press secretary Siarhei Lepin and accused them of inciting hatred towards the authorities and encouraging people to aggression. Yury Kasabutski does not rule out that soon the clergy may be arrested, as well as many civilians. Today it became known that the press secretary of the BOC Siarhei Lepin submitted a letter of resignation.
However, it is worth noting that after the change of the head of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, not all priests condemn the violence that is happening in Belarus. The spiritual father of St. Elisabeth Convent, archpriest Lemyashonak said that riot police should be pitied, and a mother of a son beaten by riot police needs to repent, as “she has badly brought him up”.
For more information on the events of 26 November 2020, please visit Infocenter Free Belarus 2020:
