Siarhei Dyleuski: Tsikhanouskaia’s Office Knew About COVID Wave But Didn’t Support Us
45- 24.01.2025, 11:00
- 31,522
The inconvenient truth about the 2021 strike.
Cyber Partisans managed to obtain databases for all the deceased citizens of Belarus. As it turned out, COVID-19 claimed 90,000 lives, not 7,000, as the authorities claimed. And this is more than the official military losses of Ukraine today.
The heaviest in 2021 were October and November. At that time, 10,000-12,000 more people died every month than usual. It was on November 1, 2021 that the Belarusian Association of Workers went on strike, urging people to stay at home.
Could more people have been saved? Why didn't Tsikhanouskaia's office support this initiative?
The Charter97.org website spoke with the leader of the Belarusian Association of Workers, a member of the Presidium of the first Coordinating Council of the opposition, Siarhei Dyleuski:
— We had clear data from the factories that this is exactly what is happening, that people are actually dying. Mortality and morbidity were enormous.
Then no one believed, and today this data was confirmed by Cyber Prtizans. As far as I remember now, information from the field then came such that from 10 to 15% of employees, if we take generalized data, were on sick leave. About 10-15% were ill and in quite serious condition, but were forced to go to work, as the authorities did not recognize the coronavirus and did not declare quarantine.
We then monitored the situation and understood where everything was going. There were also political goals, in the wake of protests, we called on people to declare strikes, somehow rebel against the regime. But we also saw the incidence data and understood that people just die for nothing, and this is not getting proper publicity.
TV then said that in enterprises with the incidence of COVID-19, "everything is fine", but in fact it was exactly the opposite. That is why we urged people to stay at home, protect themselves and not go to work, roughly speaking, in the hotbed of infection. At that time, we managed to save thousands of people from death.
— Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaia's office at that moment did not support the call to stay at home. Why? Did you talk to them, conveyed your position on the need to save people from COVID-19?
— Yes, we talked about this, there were some calls, we tried to contact them, tried to explain the whole situation. The answer has always been one — "people are not ready, people do not want".
We tried to convey our insider information. We disseminated statistics on the incidence and talked about how dangerous it is to be in the workplace in the context of a pandemic, not only for enterprises, but absolutely everywhere. We stressed how important it was for people to stay at home, but neither the office nor Tsikhanouskaia herself supported us.
— You were not supported in 2021. In August 2020, when enterprises across the country spontaneously went on strike in protest against repression, strike committees appeared at the largest factories, neither Tsikhanouskaia nor her entourage called for a strike. There were only Sunday rallies. Why did none of the political leaders who were at large call for a strike?
— Honestly, Tsikhanouskaia did not understand what was happening. Then it seemed that the election headquarters was just going with the flow. We organized strike committees, rallies of striking workers went around the cities, but we did not receive any help. They didn't mind, they just approved.
Why wasn't there more emphasis? Probably, you should ask them, not me.
— Could the events have gone differently?
— Sure, they could. Then there was an opportunity to radically change the course of the 2020 Revolution.
— Tsikhanouskaia called for a strike only on October 26. Was it too late?
— Well, of course, the time was already wasted. Even judging by my situation, I was detained back in August, when we went out and began to organize these strikes. Then, roughly speaking, until October 26, I was in prison. Most of the people who went on strike with me and organized strike committees were also arrested.
But then the headquarters did nothing about it. You know, there are no indispensable people, but for some reason they fussed, there was something from the category "it means that you need to sit quietly, be calm, do not lean out." If a different decision had been made on their part, I think people would have supported it.
— Would it be possible to use strikes as a protest tool in the future?
— Strikes have always been, are and will be one of the most important tools of protest. Against any regime. Against any regime whatsoever. Based on the current situation and the news from Belarus, it’s clear that the frail Lukashenka is desperately visiting various enterprises, attempting to keep up appearances or prove he’s still in control, even though that’s far from reality.
We see some online videos made by the regime, often featuring the same familiar faces. But still, he continues to visit some factories to make at least some appearance of support from the workers. But everyone already knows how the factories treat Lukashenka. If the workers go on strike again today, the regime will not survive.