Parade and celebrations

Music

00:00:00:00

Campbell:  Summertime, and the cream of Belarus's youth are putting their best foot forward. And everyone's smiling.

00:00:16

Muzzled dog at courthouse

Also on display, but at a very different exhibition, two teenagers in a courthouse, in the capital, Minsk. Sixteen year old Vadim and his nineteen year old friend Alexei stand accused of one of the nations most serious crimes.

01:00:30

Vadim and Alexei

They are considered to so dangerous, that eight armed guards and a rotweiler surround their cage. Their crime is not murder, narcotics or terrorism. It's graffiti. They're accused of writing rude remarks about the president.

01:00:49

Campbell:  In the streets and the courts of Belarus, everyone marches to the beat of one man, President Alexander Lukashenko.

01:01:09

Parade

Music

01:01:17

Lukashenko watching parade

Campbell:  The Belarus president is not a man who's comfortable with criticism. During his four years in office, he has gained near dictatorial powers and used them to crush dissident. At least, that's what his critics say. Lukashenko insists it's just western propaganda.

01:01:27

Music

01:01:44

Press conference

Lukashenko:  Our citizens have no less right than citizens of Russia and the West including the U. S., Great Britain, Germany and France. This is an absolutely artificial problem. There are some peculiarities just like in any other country - but why do you make an elephant out of a fly?

01:01:49

Documentary excerpt of ‘Ordinary President'

Campbell:  But in a radio interview with German media, broadcast later in a documentary film, Lukashenko gave a quite different response. He named his role model as Adolf Hitler.

01:02:15

Lukashenko:  There is positive as well. Hitler formed mighty Germany due to the strong presidential power.  But the German order had been formed for centuries. Under Hitler that formation reached its peak. And it's that what is in keeping with our idea of a presidential republic and the role of President in it.

01:02:26

Minsk traffic/statues

Campbell: Lukashenko's vision for his republic's future, borrows heavily from the Soviet Union as well as Nazi Germany. Coming here is like going back in time. There are very few Western cars or commercial advertising. The shops sell Soviet era produce. And the police are never far away.

01:02:48

It's ordered, neat, and utterly oppressive.

01:03:07

Independence Parade

FX:  Brass band

01:03:11

Campbell:  Yet for a brief time there was democracy. Belarus declared itself free of the Soviet Union seven years ago, an event now celebrated in this annual parade. Lukashenko even gained power through the ballot box. A former collective farm boss, he ran for office on a platform of fighting corruption. But once he was president, his main priority became fighting reform.

01:03:19

To the horror of democrats, he rolled back personal liberties, and reimposed state control. Now even independence celebrations resemble soviet rallies, with marching soldiers, columns of tanks and rocket launchers. And that hallmark of soviet industrial achievement, the tractor.

01:03:52

Lukashenko watching parade

Lukashenko insists he's not a communist. In fact, he claims not to follow any ideology. But Belarussia's old guard communists have come to accept him as one of their own.

01:04:15

Lukashenko:  Long live our motherland, the independent Belarus. Hooray, comrades.

01:04:31

Poster of Lukashenko

Campbell:  And Lukashenko looks like he could stay in power for as long as he wants.

01:04:38

Two years ago, he held a referendum to strip the opposition led parliament of any real power.

01:04:46

Protest march

Campbell:  European Union observers claim the referendum was rigged. But there was no avenue to challenge it. Courts, state media, and the entire government came under the president's direct control, along with police and the KGB.

01:04:56

Campbell walking to Sannikov's apartment

To find the opposition these days, you have to hunt out a small private apartment.

01:05:17

Sannikov

Andrei Sannikov was Lukashenko's Deputy Foreign Minister until he resigned in protest against his increasing authoritarianism. He now fears Lukashenko has become mentally unbalanced.

01:05:27

Sannikov interview

Sannikov:  Yes, many steps he's taking could be explained only from the point of view of psychiatry.

01:05:39

Campbell:  So you think he's mad?

01:05:48

Sannikov:  I think he -- at least for the president -- to behave like this it's very strange.

01:05:50

Charter 97 members working in Sannikov's apartment

FX:  Phone

01:06:01

Campbell:  Andrei's apartment houses a small pro-democracy group called Charter 97. It's a David versus Goliath contest, and so far Goliath is winning.

01:06:06

Sannikov interview

Sannikov:  He's changing people...  because I think the most dangerous factor that now is active in Belarus is that people rediscovered the fears of Soviet times.

01:06:17

Protesters being beaten by police

FX:  Protest

01:06:30

Campbell:  And people have good reason to be afraid. This is what they risk if they take part in demonstrations.

01:06:34

FX:  Protest

01:06:40

Campbell:  There is little pretence that police are merely keeping order. This is summary punishment for daring to protest. An exposed back or a bare head is treated as a provocation and dealt with accordingly.

01:06:51

Yuri Khaschevatsky at video monitor

Yuri:  This is one of the most violent moments when they cracked down on a demonstration. These are unique shots - they are beating a Japanese student who came to study the Belarussian language.  Many TV reports said a woman was beaten up - but Lukashenko said it was not a woman - it was some Chinese...

01:07:06

Campbell:  Yuri Khaschevatsky has made a career of studying the president and his police. He's one of the country's foremost film directors and in Lukashenko, he's found the perfect vehicle for comedy.

01:07:24

Yuri:  He is like a man who holds a pencil and is sure that when he lets go to it, it will fly up.  This is the symbol or our economy - he is sure everything must go up. So he opens his hand - and everything falls down. Can you imagine the horror he experiences when he sees things falling down instead of going up? He quickly develops a suspicion and tries to find people to blame.  So who is to blame?

01:07:36

The opposition - undoubtedly. Intelligentsia - of course.

01:08:09

Excerpt from An Ordinary President

Campbell:  Yuri chronicled the adventures of Lukashenko in a bitingly satirical documentary called An Ordinary President.  Beginning with the Hitler remarks, the film attacked Lukashenko with the most vicious tool known to dissidents - ridicule.

01:08:16

Film v/o:  Alexander Grigoryevich was firmly leaving the Parliament room like the enemy den. There the military drill was of use.  His back was covered and that is the main thing.

01:08:30

Overturned police cars

Campbell:  Not surprisingly, the film was promptly banned in Belarus. But it was televised to great acclaim in Western Europe. Two days later, some visitors wiped the smile off Yuri's face.

01:08:43

Badly beaten Yuri

Yuri:  I opened the door and I was hit on the head immediately. They threw me into the lobby of my studio where I work.  And then I can only vaguely remember what happened.

01:08:55

Campbell and Yuri

Campbell:  Bashed, but unabashed, Yuri is now directing a sequel.

01:09:11

Yuri:  As to why we are going to continue making the films with my friends it is very interesting.  He is a very interesting character for documentaries. I have been to the  U. S. and I told them that if they don't give him an Oscar for the best performance, we'll have complications. There'll be a scandal.

01:09:15

Ambassadors

Campbell:  Oscar or no Oscar, President Lukashenko is quite capable of creating his own scandal. Last June, in a move even Hollywood couldn't dream up, he led perhaps the strangest attack on foreign dignitaries in diplomatic history.

01:09:49

He ordered his police to lock a score of ambassadors out of their homes, claiming they needed new plumbing.

01:10:04

Ambassador: We already get the next threat. This morning we got already a threat from the government.

01:10:11

Campbell:  In protest, the US Ambassador, the Japanese Ambassador and every European Union ambassador left the country.

01:10:20

Sannikov interview

Super:

ANDREI SANNIKOV

Dep. Foreign Minister, 1995-96

Sannikov:  Even on an ordinary people level, I can't imagine a Belarussian throwing out his guests from his home. So I'm very much ashamed and embarrassed that it's happening in Belarus, but I saw it coming, because from time to time he blames Western ambassadors, the US Ambassador, of conspiring against him, of trying to plot against him.

01:10:27

Ambassadors

Campbell:  As yet there's no sign of when, or if the ambassadors will return.

01:10:59

Lukashenko's growth was achieved by pumping massive subsidies into unprofitable state industries. Last March, the currency began an inevitable free fall, the rouble trading as low as 60,000 to the dollar.

01:11:08

Tamara on farm

Now, even the president's erstwhile supporters are turning against him. Four years ago, Tamara Danilovic, like most collective farm workers, voted for Lukashenko, a man they believed would understand their problems.

01:11:26

Tamara interview

Tamara:  I hoped he would help us since he's from a collective farm.  After all, he worked as a farm chairman. We hoped he would support the country folk. But after four years, we haven't seen anything.

01:11:43

Farm buildings/ Tamara rides away on bicycle

Campbell:  Tamara works ten hours a day for the equivalent of US$60 a month. It's not enough to even pay for food.

01:11:56

So, at the end of each shift, Tamara starts her real work in her backyard.

01:12:06

Tamara working

She milks her own cow, feeds her pigs and chickens, and grows her own vegetables. Without this, her four children and one grandchild, would go hungry.

01:12:14

Tamara interview

Tamara:  Everything comes from this garden - everything is ours... potatoes... cucumbers too.  If the weather is good we preserve them - we don't buy them. They are very expensive.

01:12:25

Campbell:  Tamara, you're paid 60 American dollars. Even with all this, how is it possible to live?

01:12:41

Tamara:   What do you mean, how can we live? We spend money only on basics... bread, sugar, salt... maybe candy for the kids... this is what we spend the salary on. And the rest, like vegetables, we don't buy. We grow it ourselves. We have our own milk, our own lard - what else do we need?

01:12:49

Parliament/ Lukashenko with Yeltsin

Campbell:  What President Lukashenko thinks the proletariat need is perhaps his defining act of madness. He's proposing reuniting Belarus with Russia, the biggest economic basketcase of all.

01:13:11

He's already opened the border, an event portrayed in Yuri's film in less than reverential terms.

01:13:26

Film:  And that's that, there's no borderline any longer.  You can go to and from. By the way, there's no customs house there, either.

01:13:35

Belarussian flag carried by child

Campbell:  Belarussian nationalists have been stunned by Lukashenko's attempts to give away their nascent independence. Lukashenko has even banned nationalist symbols. It's now a criminal offence to display the red and white Belarus flag.

01:13:50

Lukashenko has reinstated the old Soviet flag instead.

01:14:05

Many suspect the 43 year old president has some method in his madness.

01:14:10

Sannikov interview

Sannikov:  He tries to show in practice what could be achieved in terms of going back to the totalitarian past. But he thinks that this model would be acquired also by Russia and by Ukraine, and that's why he sees himself not only as leader of the Belarus, but leader of the Slavic world. Let's say leader of the restored Soviet Union.

01:14:17

Campbell:  President of Russia as well as Belarus?

01:14:45

Sannikov:  Oh, yes.

01:14:47

People walking through streets/Independence day

Campbell:  After a four year crackdown, there are now few Belarussians game enough to try to stop him.

01:14:49

On Independence Day, the only sign of protest was a handful of Charter 97 members called for freedom for political prisoners. The police didn't even bother arresting them.

01:14:58

After a half-hearted attempt to push away the cameras, they let some diehard communists do their business for them.

01:15:12

KGB member filming

A KGB cameraman filmed the protestors. They'll almost certainly be dealt with later.

01:15:23

Vadim and Alexei at court

Our two graffiti terrorists, Vadim and Alexei, were eventually dealt with, after spending six months in pre-trial detention.

01:15:31

Vadim interview

Vadim:  The first accusation against me was that I humiliated the honour and dignity of the president - but why and how it happened, I was not told. I was just told that all the details will be revealed during the court session and until then, I'd just stay in gaol.

01:15:40

Alexei in court

Campbell:  Alexei was sentenced to a further 18 months in a labour camp.

01:16:05

Vadim, being just 16, was given a suspended sentence, but he's not off the hook. Police have warned his mother, Yadviga [?sp], that he'll be on his way to join Alexei if he's seen on the streets protesting.

01:16:13

Mother:  If they want, they will find a pretext. As Vadim says, they will come and take him at home if they want.

01:16:27

Mother interview

And you can't prove anything.

01:16:33

Protestors

Campbell:  Right up until their conviction, a few brave souls continued to demonstrate. They got nowhere.

01:16:40

FX:  Chanting

01:16:46

Campbell:  The end of the Soviet Union was supposed to end mindless suppression, but in Belarus, Stalin's ghost is rising.

01:16:50

FX:  Chanting

01:16:58