Lukashenka's uncompromising opponent congratulates Belarusians on gaining independence
25 years ago ago, on 25 August 1991, the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic acquired the status of constitutional law. On this day, Belarusian emigre politician Zyanon Pazniak is sending greetings to those who ‘are carrying the flag of independence’.
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“Now we have a real state. We have real sovereignty. The state exists. It happened, and this is very important. This is the result of the victory of the national idea which is first and foremost the aspiration for establishing an independent and national state. The creation of an independent state is more important than the achievement of power. At present, those at the helm of the state are anti-Belarusian. But still, the state exists, and it means that the nation does have hope for the future. Having your home, we have a future. There are young people in Belarus; it is important that they were committed, able to hoist the flag of independence and even ready to sacrifice in the name of the idea. I believe in our future! Long live Belarus!” the politician said in his congratulatory speech.
Zyanon Paznyak, 72, Chairman of the Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian People’s Front, became one of the founders of the Belarusian People’s Front in late 80s. Historian and archeologist Paznyak discovered Kurapaty, an area on the outskirts of Ьштыл, in which a vast number of people were executed between 1937 and 1941 during the Stalinist Purge. The discovery and exhumation of the remains in 1988 gave an added momentum to the pro-democracy and pro-independence movement in Belarus in the last years of the Soviet Union’s existence.
After Alyaksandr Lukashenka became president of Belarus in 1994 the contrast between the two politicians only sharpened. He led the first mass protests against the methods of Lukashenka’s rule, which later became known as Spring 1996. After a wave of political repression, Zyanon Paznyak emigrated to the West.
