As IMF is about to, it seems, to approve a $3bn loan to Alyaksandr Lukashenka, dictator of Belarus, a petition is calling out the financial package to the "dictators' alliance" as unethical and dangerous. Addressed to the International Monetary Fund, it was created by the Belarusian activist Denis Kazakiewicz, who currenly lives in Genk, Belgium. The details of the deal are not disclosed to the public. IMF mission head Peter Dohlman met with Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Minsk on 16 March 2017, at the same day as dozens of peaceful protesters demonstrating against the "social parasites tax" were arrested all over Belarus. Moreover, joint Russian-Belarusian military drills will be held in Belarus in September 2017. Here we publish Denis' letter which he sent to Euromaidan Press.
Read more: "Anti-parasite tax rallies" throughout Belarus end in mass arrests
I was lucky to emigrate from the dictatorship more than 5 years ago and now I reside in Belgium. I continue to follow the news in my native Belarus. Free people in my native country are on the rise and there are some signs, that they finally may succeed after 23 years of dictatorship, but the mental battle is fierce: on each new manifestation dictator responds with a new wave of brutal arrests.
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5 years ago in Belarus I had the impression that the lack of freedom did seem OK for the majority of the people. No, nobody liked it, of course, but they somehow managed themselves to deal and to live with it. You know, like many little unsaid but scrupulously observed small rules of generally accepted social behavior. Don't stand out of the "collective", they say. Rule number one: the superior is always right; rule number two: see rule number one, they say. You can not trust anyone but yourself, they say. It all nails down to the depressing feeling of constant everyday oppression. Poverty and oppression. That how every day life of common people in Belarus looked like. And fake enthusiasm on state controlled TV channels and newspapers. And people who watch propaganda news every evening. When you talk to them you can never be sure, whether they are pretending for the sake of successful career or they are really crazy enough to believe propaganda crap. By the way, there are Departments of State Ideology in every factory, in every establishment, in every hospital, in every school.
Read also: Crackdown, repressions prompt wave of solidarity in Belarusian society
We also demand IMF not provide any financial assistance to the Belarus whilst Lukashenka remains in power. There are at least two reasons for the latter. First, the government under Lukashenka was unable convert previous substantial loans from IMF into palpable economic reforms, so there is no reason to believe it will be otherwise this time. Second, the future legitimate government would still have to perform the reforms which are of no less magnitude than those that are needed at the moment (because of the first argument), but their efforts will be impeded by the financial obligations from the loan."I am tired of being a slave"
But what stroke me the most was not related to the economic arguments of the petition. Many people wrote emotional comments about their life. Probably the most common words in comments were "weariness" and "slavery."
Read more: 5 things you need to know about Lukashenka’s crackdown on Minsk protests
The most recent public information I've found on the loan is dated by 26 October 2016. As of today, IMF officially denies that they received notifications from change.org regarding the petition. They did not respond (as of today) to my questions. The fact that the free world is going to pay $3b to the dictator disheartens all Belarusians who cherish democratic values. Moreover it provides substantial financial help to the Putin-Lukashenka dictators' alliance. It increases Putin's military might. Thus, the loan is unethical, harmful for the civil society, encouraging for the dictators and most importantly dangerous. On the contrary, if IMF would refuse to provide the loan because of public pressure that would send a clear signal to the dictators' alliance that have no other choice limit their military provocations. Not giving the loan would show solidarity of the free world with democratic community in Belarus. Regards Denis Kazakiewicz Launcher of the petition "Stop IMF loan to the brutal dictator of Belarus!"If repression of Belarus ppl continues EPP will make all possible to reinstate new measures against Lukashenka & his regime
— Joseph Daul (@JosephDaul) March 25, 2017
Denis also attached his story of correspondence with the IMF:
"I wrote a open personal appeal to two persons managing the loan negotiations. The appeal was sent on 22 March 2017 to the official IMF email and via regular mail to IMF office in Minsk. The appeal asked Mr Dohlman in DC and Ms Lysko in Minsk "to put on halt on your own behalf all negotiations between IMF and the government of Belarus" for ethical reasons.
The day after that, Mr Rice (IMF spokesman) said in his press briefing on 23 March 2017, "I am not aware of any letters to the IMF on this [the petition]. I am aware, from press reports, that there’s a petition ongoing in Belarus. But, again, we haven’t received anything there."
This is indeed a strange statement because in any case (even if they did not process the email from the day before) change.org sends regular notifications to an addressee. The email of IMF is stored in their data base. Change.org officially confirmed for the record that they did send those notifications to IMF, however they did not provide exact dates for that.
There was also no response to the personal appeal above as well. I've reiterated the appeal to work email address of Mr Dohlman on 30 March. He has chosen to ignore it. On 31 March, I filed a case to IMF ethics hotline on Mr Dohlman (because it is unethical to ignore such emails). On 4 April an IMF public affairs officer answered on behalf of Mr Dohlman that IMF does not meddle in politics.
Journalist of Belarus branch of RFE/RL Dmitry Hurnevich has made numerous active attempts to reach Ms Lysko in Minsk to get her reaction to the appeal. The secretary in Minsk IMF office required to send an "official letter." Dmitry has sent it and made several follow-up phone calls, but did not get a response, as of today.
I've also emailed to Mr Dohlman with the notion that his visit to Lukashenka could be viewed as an endorsement of Mr Lukashenka and his unlawful actions. In fact, Mr Lukashenka immediately has used this visit to promote his own political agenda in local press. I've asked to issue a statement that the visit to Mr Lukashenka pn 16 March should not be regarded as an endorsement of his political agenda. They did not respond as of today.
