My good sirs Europeans, look into the eyes of Danik Sannikov

• Natallya Radzina
• 31.01.2011, 19:48

As a person who is restricted to travel abroad as well, I cannot but be happy about the EU decision. But what good would it do to 3-year-old Danik?

This boy is known to the whole world now. Today he can see his arrested mother, but does he have any hope to see his father?

Today morning I thought that there is hope, but I am not sure now. Why Europe used half-measures again? Why do we see on the lists of persons banned entry to Europe the disreputable crew of the people who are engaged in total lawlessness and who are giving a bad time to the entire nation in the centre of Europe, but nothing more?

If the point is in my being sent into exile and Iryna Khalip’s being under house arrest, then count me out, it is not freedom. You, Europeans, should know that. I remember the scared faces of European journalists who had to hang about in Minsk airport for hours, trying to go thought tightened control measures before the elections. Within a few hours of stay in our country they realized where they had landed. I could not see that, but I can imagine their reaction after being beaten by truncheons of the Belarusian special forces on December 19.

And now imagine how we felt after we were “released.” I am no coward, but on the next day after being released from the KGB jail I left my house and bump up against an unknown person. He had usual inconspicuous clothes on. He asked how I was doing. My heart sank into my boots. “I will be arrested again,” I thought fatefully. It turned out that this man’s mother lives next to me, and he simply recognized me and wanted to support… I know that I will shudder every time seeing “inconspicuous men” and recalling their bursting into my office and my home, and the beatings and arrests all over the year 2010.

For his short life 3-year-old Danik had to see many of those men in plainclothes. Two of them are sitting in his house now. And if you think that a little boy does not understand anything, you are mistaken. When we met, a cheerful and sociable Danik talked unceasingly, and went to demonstrate all his toys. When searches were held in his apartment, Danik was hiding under the table and observed that silently. And after the barbarian attempts to place him to orphanage, he is asking his grandparents all the time: “Is it possible that evil people will took me from you?”

Danik is happy today certainly, as his mother is with him now. But he sees that two tough guys are guarding his mother; mother cannot go for a walk with him for some reason, and cannot come near the window for some reason… That’s because his mother is under arrest. And dad is still absent, though Danik is waiting for him. When dad, who bathed him before sleep, will come back?

I do not know what to answer to this question of Danik. Maybe the high ministers from the countries of the European Union, who have adopted a decision to impose only visa sanctions, know that? Or have they forgotten that today Andrei Sannikov, Zmitser Bandarenka, Alyaksandr Atroshchankau, Anatol Lyabedzka and many others are remaining behind the bars? Or have they some special plan, which is incomprehensible for me? Do they count on Lidziya Yarmoshyna’s starting to weep because she cannot see Paris, and conscience of all law-enforcers would wake, and they would retire?

History knows why Alyaksandr Kazulin and other political prisoners were released after the election in 2006. And you, dear Europeans, continue go around in circles. I am thankful to you for not forgetting us, I am thankful for showing solidarity and demanding our full and unconditional release. But maybe we’ve had enough of talk? While you are talking – we are serving time in jail.

Natallya Radzina