Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko stands accused of rigging his country's presidential election and even kidnapping and murdering political opponents. Just before the poll, CNN's Ryan Chilcote put these allegations to him an an exclusive interview.
Chilcote: Thank you for being with us Mr. President. You’re well ahead in the polls, any doubts in your minds you’ll win this election?
Lukashenko: Any normal man should have doubts even if he’s totally confident, but the opinion polls of course speak for themselves. Even the American polls put my approval rating at 57 percent and those don’t differ all that much from the Russian polls that gave me percent or our own Belarus polls at 62 percent.
With ratings like that, there’s obviously great likelihood that I’ll win, but you never know.
Chilcote: There has been a lot of criticism of how these elections are being conducted. How can you assure the world community these elections will be fair and honest?
Lukashenko: They’re always talking about honest and fair elections. That can be interpreted differently. I always tell our American and European colleagues to name a country -- be it Russia, Ukraine or Poland -- that could serve as a model for elections here.
We could for example run elections like they’re run in Russia. The United States recognised the Russian elections, why not run elections like they’re run there? They just smile, and say "no, no, no."
All right, then we’re going to conduct them in accordance with our legislation.
I can guarantee you that they will be conducted in accordance with international standards and our legislation. And with a 65 percent approval rating, do you think I’m interested in creating problems for myself, do you think I’m going to conduct the elections in a such a fashion that the world doesn’t recognise the elections, for their results to be crossed out?
I don’t have any need in pushing the appropriate people into falsifying the vote.
Secondly, our society today is very civilised, very educated, and the election officials are very sophisticated. You think I can push them into (falsification) and get a good result? It’ll be just the other way around like it was when I was the underdog candidate and won in the last presidential elections.
The government used so much pressure, coercion, gunfire and what did they accomplish, nothing. So, I drew the appropriate conclusions from that. Many Western observers here are saying things are so quiet, they’re never this quiet. That’s because I’m doing everything I can to make sure these elections are carried out calmly, and our people could calmly vote.
Chilcote: There are allegations that you and your government behind the use of death squads. The U.S. State Department calls those allegations credible. Are you or anyone in your government behind the disappearances of your political opponents?
Lukashenko: That’s a good question for the State Department. The State Department should tell the media what facts they have to call those allegations them credible. I’ve already answered those charges and more than that: I dispatched the Interior Minister with a group of 16 journalists to check on the most recent allegations that the U.S. State Department and our opposition have announced.
The allegations were complete disaster. That kind of stuff won’t fly here anymore. People here were convinced that those allegations are totally false. But let me repeat that if they have any facts, they should share them with the world.
Chilcote: Just to be clear, you never asked anyone to kidnap or kill anyone?
Lukashenko: (Laughs). You think the president can order someone to kill or kidnap someone? Europeans, it seems to me, are supposed to be pretty civilised when it comes to that.
That’s a completely impossible thing for a European to do and I consider myself a European. And keep in mind that the people that disappeared were never my political opponents -- they were completely bankrupted members of the opposition.
I would have better protected them in order to run against them in this election because they’re no competitors. And you know that. Take Gonchar for example -- he was a completely politically bankrupted in 1999 when they wanted to elect Chickiyar.
He stole so much money from the opposition that even the opposition started hating him, I knew that.
The people who disappeared were never dangerous to me in a political sense. Take anyone of those three that all of the sudden disappeared. I have different information, we’ll check it, and then I think we’ll have some interesting things to share.
Chilcote: How then do you explain these mysterious disappearances?
Lukashenko: I can’t explain the disappearances because there’s a criminal investigation underway and I can’t influence that criminal investigation. If the head of state starts speculation, then the investigation can take a turn in the wrong direction. I’m very careful not to get into the facts.
But I consider these allegations to be dirt and lies. These people are just looking to play a card in politics, you have to agree that if they really sincerely wanted to help the investigation they would not be acting this way. OK, so you don’t want to help the investigation, go ahead and interfere in the investigation. So, today I can’t tell you any versions. But I can tell you this is an average political provocation.
Chilcote: Describe the political opposition in Belarus.
Lukashenko: The political opposition is too far from the people -- that’s one. Two, they’re all has-beens. They already had their hand at running the state: the communists, the Kolyakintzi, and Kozlovsky -- who ran the army, the same with Chikir who was the prime minister, and Goncharik who the second secretary in the Communist party apparatus, and then ran the labour unions under the communists’ control. Shishkevich who, once upon a time, headed our state.
Three, they all want to destroy Lukashenko, settle their scores with him, get rid of him, punish him, hang him, and kill him. You can’t use those kinds of slogans in an election. That’s what characterises our opposition. I mean it when I say that having an opposition is the sign of a normal civilised society, but the opposition must obey the law, and must be patriotic.
No Conservatives or Liberals in for example the United Kingdom would say something against the English. Never in their life. And ours -- they are campaigning against our own people.
Our opposition should study opposition parties in the West, learn to be a civilized, and patriotic opposition. Only then do they earn the right to live in this state, to fight for office, and have a future in this society.
You doubt that the opposition that the West is supporting the opposition. I know they are, I have document evidence. And even the American citizens who live in Belarus confirm that.
Chilcote: How do you explain the West’s interest in Belarus politics?
Lukachenko: They don’t like the course that the president of Belarus has taken here, a truly independent course aimed at our sovereignty. They don’t like the fact that we’re such close allies with Russia. They don’t like the fact that we didn’t agree to join the belt of isolation that was mean to separate Russia from Europe. We’re in the middle of fight between giants, sitting in the middle, a fight between Russia and the West and the United States.
That’s what happened because of our position, but we can’t betray the Russians. They’re our brothers, how can we betray them. The Americans should be able to understand that, and the Europeans all the more so.
I understand reform to mean the perfection of what previous generations have already done, I’m not an advocate of destroying, 'kroshat’, and then selling like they do in Russia. That’s how we can prevent the wild corruption in our state like they have in the other post-Soviet states. I’m an advocate of evolutionary, not revolutionary changes. People call me an anti-reformer, that’s absolutely stupid.
Belarus 'no Yugoslavia'
It all depends on Russia. We could be in the closest relations with Russia, but we’ll never lose our sovereignty or independence. We want equal rights in the union. It doesn’t matter that Russia is a gigantic country and Belarus is a little smaller.
Luxembourg and Germany are different states but they’re both in the European Union. They found their niche, and have a completely equal partnership. If Russia and its leadership is ready for union based on equal rights with us, we won’t hesitate but not to the detriment of Europe.
We’re ready to co-operate with Europe as a unit with Russia, or separate from Russia in all aspects and we’re ready to work together with the United States, as a unit with Russia and without from Russia. We’re an independent and sovereign state and we’re going to carry out our foreign policy as we see fit. The ball’s in the United States’ court.
But the United States shouldn’t block itself in a corner, in a dead end. They should take a look at how things are developing here, take a look at the will of our people and take that into consideration.
The same thing as what was done in Yugoslavia. A violent overthrowing of the government without regard for the results of the election. We’ve never denied the possibility of Yugoslav variant here. We know that West is planning a Yugoslav scenario, but perhaps the West has understood that it’s not realistic here.
Belarus isn’t Yugoslavia and the situation here isn’t one like in Yugoslavia. Despite all of the aggressive tendencies of our oppositions, I don’t think that’ll happen here. The elections will be calm, and in a civilized fashion and you’ll learn who became president of our country on the 10th.
