“There was some success. And the main win was that people woke up. We always felt like we were in some special preserve of our own – we who deal with human rights and the politicians active in opposition politics. This domestic preserve has now come to an end. That’s important to me. It’s important that I can now speak of my dreams and plans with almost every Belarusian. Because we all have one dream and one goal – a new Belarus. It is very important for me that we get back our flag, our language, that we have a new generation for whom I have worked, for whom I created ‘Gang’, which has been viewed 2.8 million times already. I consider it my humble contribution to our victory, and may it come as soon as possible.”
“I think we will probably only hear of the fate that befell the missing politicians after the regime changes. That is also one reason why it is desirable for the change to happen as soon as possible. I consider many of the crimes of Lukashenko’s regime to go beyond the framework of national norms – they are true crimes against humanity. And such crimes should be tried before an international criminal tribunal or committee specially established for this purpose. Because the regime has crossed all limits, all boundaries imaginable. These are criminal acts of an international nature.”
“The presidential election took place on 19 December 2010, and the results were announced that evening. We had three days to submit a complaint, a request for the invalidation of the election. During that time Uladzimir Nyaklyayew was beaten, hospitalised, and taken from hospital to the ‘Americana’ [KGB detention centre – ed.]. We didn’t even know where Nyaklyayew was for several days, lawyers were not given access to him. We were in a deadlock. A day later the BNF [Belarusian National Front] held a press conference, and we found out where Nyaklyayew was. All five opposition candidates were in the ‘Americana’, they were all arrested. At the press conference, I approached Kastusiou, the BNF candidate, and asked him to sign our complaint, because our candidate wasn’t able to. He refused because they were preparing their own complaint. We had gathered lots of materials. I was angry, and I didn’t know what to do. The preparation of the complaint, its writing, is a story for another time. Then suddenly Kastusiou called me and said they couldn’t submit the BNF complaint because their lawyer had been forced into hiding. He told me: ‘I’ll sign your complaint, but I’m on my way for questioning by the KGB.’ He phoned again in the evening and said that he has asked to be let out to get a coffee, arguing that he was tired from all the questioning. And they let him go. I got into a taxi and took my husband with me – he is taller and stronger. It was all high-adrenaline stuff. We met with Kastusiou in the square in front of the Red Church, we popped inside the church, and he signed the complaint there.”
Raisa Mikhailovskaya (née Gumerova) was born in Klaipėda, former Lithuanian SSR, on 3 March 1960. Her mother, Iryna Ivanovna Gumerova (née Kanash, 1928–2014), was a Belarusian from the village of Kaliadzichy near Minsk. Her father, Khalyafutdin Galliamovich Gumerov (1930–1990), was a Tatar born in the village of Yermekeyevo in Yermekeyevsky District, Bashkir Autonomous SSR; he graduated from the Omsk Tank School and served in Klaipėda. Her father’s father, Gallam Gumerov, was the victim of repressions in 1937, and his fate is unknown. In 1975 Raisa’s father organised a strike at the G. K. Ordzhonikidze Factory in Minsk and was consequently expelled from the Communist Party. In 1982 Raisa graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Belarusian State University. She then worked as a research assistant at her alma mater. During the perestroika, she took a course in programming and design and worked in publishing houses. In 1988 she was employed as CEO of Law and Aid to the Inhabitants, an organisation supported by the Soros Foundation. Raisa earned a degree at the Faculty of Law of the Minsk Institute of Management. In 2003 the authorities dissolved Law and Aid to the Inhabitants. That same year, Raisa ran for a seat in the local council. However, she was struck off the candidates’ list under false pretenses. In the 2006 presidential election, she provided legal support to the team of the candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin. From 2008 she headed the Human Rights Centre, a Belarusian NGO. In the 2010 presidential election, Raisa directed the legal team of the presidential candidate Uladzimir Nyaklyayew. After the election, she submitted an invalidation request to the Central Election Committee and then appealed their denial to the Supreme Court. Her home and her office were subjected to police searches. In 2012 registered the Belarusian Documentation Centre in Vilnius; the organisation built up a database of evidence regarding the violation of human rights in Belarus. Using unique documents, she filmed the 2015 documentary Gang about opposition politicians gone missing. For her 20 years of efforts in the field of human rights, Raisa Mikhailovskaya received the national Human Rights Defender of the Year Award in 2017.
Human rights forum. Vilnius, Lithuania, October 2017. Pictured: Raisa Mikhaylovskaya (Belarusian Documentation Centre), Andrey Kogut (SBU Ukraine Archives), Vilma Ektyte (Lithuanian Special Archives)
Human rights forum. Vilnius, Lithuania, October 2017. Pictured: Raisa Mikhaylovskaya (Belarusian Documentation Centre), Andrey Kogut (SBU Ukraine Archives), Vilma Ektyte (Lithuanian Special Archives)
