[Bel]: Belarusian Telegraph Agency

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Legacy of the June rebelion
by Yakub Kolas​

Revolution that swept Belarus in June 1997 has been one of greatest shows of Ruthenian defiance ever since Slutsk uprising of 1920. Once again we showed that threats towards freedom of our people shall not pass. And as in 1920 our people rebelled.

It all started on night of June 13th,1997, in the city which totalitarian government of Lukashenko has reffered to as Brest, or as we, Ruthenian people call it Berastse. Students of Belarusian State technical university took to the streets against the government that wanted to strip away our identity. Punishing battalions of Lukashenkos police were sent to destroy, to quench any idea of rebelion.....any ideas of freedom. But this actio that lead to death of 12 students has only fueled wrath of our nation. Soon many students and workers started rising up, not divided by wealth or social class. United to overthrow the butcher who would use anything to keep his chains on us. Quickly the rebelion was joined up by such cities as Vorsha, Polatsk and Garodnya. Nationalists, patriots, anyone who cared about our state was there.

Photo of protestors in Mensk​

On June 16th, 1997 fights erupted on the streets of Vitsebsk and Gomel, between patriots and traitorous supporters of the Lukashenko regime. 34 and 26 dead respectively. One of the most violent crackdowns by Lukashenkos punisher battalions happened on the next day, Nearly 70 heroes dead, 210 imprisoned on the streets of Mensk. On the same day the fire of Vorsha started as fighting between Punishers and Revolutionaries has come to building of the civilian administration. On June 19th "Batka" Lukashenko was seen firing into the protestors from his palace.

Photo of "Bloody batka" holding an assault rifle(on the left); caricature of Lukashenko(on the right)
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With this vile action done, there was no question, Lukashenko's reign must come to an end. On the evening members of the glorious White legion have started assaulting civilian administrations of Mensk, Berestse and Gomel. The unofficial leader of the revolution and leader of White legion, Miraslau Lazouski has stated the following. "The nature of rebelion shifted from desire to preserve what was to the need of survival, as the leadership showed that it does not care about our people" and ''This is not a fight for power, this is struggle for survival''. Legionaries fight has continued until the night of of the next day, as Lukashenko and his family have fled to the unknown location. Goverment has surrendered to the wishes of the people, Police have layed down their arms.

White Legion members outside Turov​

But what has happened later, Glorious Ataman Lazouski has established himself as head of the state, temporary council was established to deal with post-revolutionary struggle of the state. Proper elections were pushed to 1999. On the 28th of June, Police of Ruthenia was disbanded and set for complete reestablishment. What has been reffered to by people as Vorsha witch trials has started, former members of Government, police and army have been put under scrutiny and deserved trial. Vorsha witch trials continue to this day as not all enemies of our Independent State have yet been defeated. Death penalty was promised to be partially abolished closer to the end of the Interim government. What future awaits our glorious nation has yet to be seen.

Eternal glory to our State

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