On the morning of Thursday 2nd October, the hospital realised that he was in a serious condition and it was all hands on deck. The Chief Medical Officer of the central hospital of the Ministry of the Interior, situated in the prison grounds, Doctor Tuchinsky, who was a surgeon, took matters in hand and averted a catastrophe. “A few hours later, and you would have come here to bury me. Tuchinsky has eyes on the ends of his fingers”, Yury told Galina.
The blood test revealed severe infection (18,000 leucocytes, “movement to the left of the differential leukocyte count”). On examination and during the operation, they confirmed that it was a neglected gangrenous appendix with abscess and peritonitis. The operation lasted an hour and a half. Now the results of his blood test were normal. Yury himself reported that he was feeling better.
The authorities directly responsible for the prisoner Bandazhevsky had been really frightened. On Sunday 5th October, representatives of the sentencing board came three times to ask Yury how he was feeling, what he thought about his state of health. He told them they needed to ask the doctors who were taking care of him.
Latest news: on Wednesday 8th October, in the afternoon, Yury and Galina’s daughter, Olga, gave birth to a little girl, Ekaterina.
On 9th October, Galina got a letter from her husband, dated March 7th: “I am feeling much better. Don’t worry. Try to relax now. The infection has gone”.
22nd NOVEMBER 2003
It is November 2003. In fact, since 18th June 2001, Yury Bandazhevsky finds himself in the same situation, with no objective certainty, other than that he is facing an eight year sentence.
As always, Galina tried to reason with him, reminding him of the positive signs that have appeared recently. “They were insistent that you re-submit your request to be released…”
“Who is to say that it isn’t a charade?” The absence of any certainty grinds his spirit down, gives him a permanent knot in the pit of his stomach and prevents him from thinking calmly.
14th DECEMBER 2003
The amnesty: on 2nd December, the director of the prison, Kovchur, was categorical: “Thanks to the legal amnesty which is undergoing its second reading in Parliament, he will be out at the very latest in April and if the law is voted for before the end of the year, in February”.
The pardon: still nothing. Galina has asked Kovchur to telephone the director of the service dealing with pardons at the President’s office to find out more. Kovchur was reluctant to do so. So Galina asked her mother-in-law to do it, given that in 2001 she had been granted an interview with the aforementioned director. He replied: “We still have many cases to consider”. This reply confirms the information that was circulating among journalists in Minsk according to which Bandazhevsky would be included in a list of candidates for presidential pardon. They are in the process of deciding now.
Yury Bandazhevsky’s scepticism: Yury Bandazhevsky is deeply convinced that they can do and say anything. In his eyes, it could all be just another deceitful charade. He told Galina that if he is released, he will need at least six months to recover any objective and normal perception of reality.
On 3rd December, the current representative at OSCE in Minsk came to see him. Before the meeting took place, those in charge of the prison had appeared rather agitated. The director came to check on the state of his cell, and ordered some repair work to be done. The visitor and the prisoner were invited into the governor’s office, where they were given a cup of tea. The governor and his assistant were present, discreetly absorbed in their work in one corner of the office, but obviously, the theme of the conversation could only be very general.
His state of health: Galina thought her husband had lost weight. The slightest violence—and violence is the norm in prison—causes him to lose control of his nerves. The parcel that Galina had brought for him was quite heavy. The scar from his appendectomy is still fresh, and he is not supposed to lift anything. The regulations demand that prisoners deal with their own parcels. He had come to an agreement with one of the guards to help him carry the parcel to his cell. But when he left the visiting room, it was a different guard. When Yury asked for his help, the guard shouted at him viciously. Galina could hear him behind the door: “So, what’s this then? You think you’re something special here? In here, you’re the same as everyone else! Do it yourself”. Yury tried to explain that he could not and that if he was not helped, he would have nothing to eat, but the guard pushed him away roughly. When he came back in, he was white as a sheet, sweating, shaking uncontrollably, completely disoriented: “I just won’t eat. In a month it will be Christmas (7th January in the Orthodox calendar) who knows when you will be able to come again”. A few minutes later, another guard, who had seen what had happened and saw the state he was in, came in. “Calm down, we’ll sort it out”. In the end the parcel was carried by another prisoner. “They humiliate me all the time” he told him.
Scientific publications: Yury was literally transfigured when he saw his articles published in the scientific journals Cardinale and Swiss Medical Weekly, that Galina managed to bring to him discreetly. (These publications are the result of a symposium organised by Michel Fernex at the University of Basle). As always, he looked sad when Galina and his youngest daughter Natalia first arrived. But when he saw his own texts written in French and in English in these prestigious scientific reviews, his eyes shone, he was completely bowled over. “This is truly my rehabilitation! A huge thank you to Professor Fernex for this magnificent present. Thank you”. Galina says that he stayed up till three in the morning, leafing through the journals, reading and rereading his articles.
8. DERISION
2nd FEBRUARY 2004
THE PRESIDENTIAL PARDON IS REFUSED
On 12th January, Galina Bandazhevskaya called President Lukashenko’s office to find out if any decision had been made about a pardon for her husband. She was told:
“Last week, the commission for pardons, that considers each case, reached a positive conclusion. But it will all depend on the Head of State.
—When will I know?
—Telephone us in a week.
At the end of a week, the same response. On 29th January, Galina learned from the sentencing board that a pardon had been refused and that Yury had signed the request for relegation to the Vetka district. The amnesty, that came into force on 14th January, reducing his sentence by a year, gave him this right. In the letter refusing him a pardon, Bandazhevsky was told that he could put in another request, on condition that he repent and pay back the thousands of dollars that he owed the government.
Lukashenko who had everyone believe that he was prepared to make the good-will gesture and had set in motion the procedure to request a pardon, fooled everybody, including the Commission for Pardons, who had given a favourable opinion. He mocked appeals from public opinion in the West, who hoped, in view of the insistence with which the prison administration had put pressure on Yury to write to the President, for a favourable outcome. The administration could never have taken this initiative by itself without an order from above. (The Director of the Committee on the Execution of Penalties said to Galina: “I ask myself, why did they put so much pressure on me to send them the case notes on his request for pardon?”)
Lukashenko made a mockery of the diplomatic initiatives from rich countries, because he knew perfectly well that the control he exerted on the population that had been contaminated by the nuclear industry suited many of them. The 8 violations of the Belarus Penal Code, denounced by OSCE during the trial, were of no concern to him. He treated with disdain the request made by Russian scientists, who asked him to “bring to an end the trial, which is not justified in our view, in which Y. Bandazhevsky is the victim, and to offer him the possibility of returning to his research, whose importance cannot be overestimated.
Lukashenko had fooled everyone, but strangely, had not duped Bandazhevsky, who had never believed it. Their provocativ
e behaviour had liberated him. In choosing relegation rather than waiting another year in prison for his sentence to be reduced, Yury had taken the easier path.
Lukashenko had even ignored the wishes of his own Parliament. In July 2003, a group of deputies from the Chamber of Representatives, members of the National Assembly of Belarus, had made an urgent appeal to him ending with these words:
“[…] we are writing to you, Alexander Grigorievich, to implore you to take the political and humanitarian decision to release Professor Bandazhevsky, in consideration of his scientific merit and of the services that he could still bring to our people, the victims of the disaster at Chernobyl.
[…] you alone can allow Yury Bandazhevsky to resume his research, that is vital if we are to receive the aid from the outside world that we urgently need for the victims of radioactive contamination. In the interests of our people, in the interests of all the victims of this disaster, and for the health of those who could become victims in a similar disaster, we beg you to bring to an end what has become known throughout the world as “the Bandazhevsky affair”.
On 8th August, the vice-president of the Commission on Human Rights at the Belarusian Parliament wrote to the Bandazhevsky Committee in Grenoble:
The President is considering the possibility of examining, for a second time, the question of granting Bandazhevsky a pardon, if he submits his request in the requisite form to the president of the Republic of Belarus.
The requisite form meant confessing to a crime he did not commit, after a year and a half of investigation that had failed to prove anything. Bandazhevsky’s request did not fulfil these requirements.
9. THE INTERNAL LIBERATION OF YURY BANDAZHEVSKY
21st MARCH 2004
“BELIEVE NOTHING, FEAR NOTHING, ASK FOR NOTHING”
The cruel game played by the Belarusian authorities to destroy Bandazhevsky had the opposite effect from the one they had counted on. Going down on bended knee to ask to be pardoned once again, knowing full well it would never happen, and then the humiliation of Lukashenko’s refusal, that he had predicted all along, seems to have cured Bandazhevsky from a long illness. He is still in prison, but this time, as a free man, determined to fight. He has lost all his fear. The false promises, the delusional tactics, the irrational hopes, that shook his nerves and paralysed his mind, have turned to dust and ashes. In pushing their hoax to the limit, and showing him clearly that he can expect nothing from them, Yury’s enemies, who manifestly thought they could bring him down once and for all, have, in reality, lost their authority over him and allowed him to rediscover himself.
An old adage from the Soviet camps in the North identified the frame of mind needed to remain free in the Gulag, briefly, in three renunciations:
“Believe nothing, fear nothing, ask for nothing” This sums up Bandazhevsky’s attitude today. The person that Galina listened to and observed during her recent three-day visit is a new man—calm and determined. “He has grown. He is a better man than he was before his arrest”, she confided to me.
The few letters that Galina has received from Yury, following the authorities bluff, already have a different tone. She has the impression that he is much stronger. “Don’t worry about me. I know my captors”, he writes, careless of the fact that his letter might be censored. Whereas before, Yury’s letters were full of complaints and lamentations, now he comforts his family and exhorts them to hold on. It is as if he is preparing to spend a long time in prison. Galina hardly dared hope but her visit confirmed this change.
Yury cannot forgive himself for having asked for a pardon a second time. He expresses himself without fear. “If they refuse me relegation to which I am entitled since the amnesty, we need to attack hard on all fronts: legally, diplomatically, in the national press and abroad. In reality, they are cowards. They are afraid of people who talk. Why has it taken all this time to understand”.
Galina is struck by the psychological and physical change in Yury. He looks really well. He is doing gymnastics and takes long walks every day in the prison yard. He seems calm and well balanced. He sleeps as soon as night falls whereas Galina has difficulty getting to sleep. He no longer looks grey. He is in good health and is full of energy. “You wouldn’t believe it! I’ve regained the energy I had in my twenties, I am writing a long paper, you’ll be amazed…I will never give up my scientific work. If I’ve survived these last three years, I can get through to the end with dignity”.
In preparation for relegation, Yury has filled nine large boxes with the letters he has received since being in prison. Galina suggested that he reduce the amount, keep a select few. “Absolutely not. I’m keeping them all”.
10. THE PRESIDENT’S PERSONAL PRISONER
Yury Bandazhevsky has benefited from two general amnesties that reduced his sentence by two years. His sentence is now six years. Having served half of it, he has the right to one year’s relegation.
EXTRACTS FROM “NEWS OF RELEGATION”198 On 29th May 2004, after a delay of five months, Yury Bandazhevsky has been relegated to an institution, 200 km from Minsk, in a “clean” zone, where conditions are far better than was expected at the beginning of the year,. The transfer of detainees from different prisons took place during the night of Friday/Saturday, in typical Soviet style. The detainees were handcuffed and escorted by soldiers with dogs. During stops, their bags were thrown to the ground, kicked open by the soldiers, the contents scattered around, and then they were ordered to put it all back. This humiliating performance was repeated three times during the night. By contrast, their welcome at the new penal settlement signalled a return to a more civilised environment: the officer who met them was unarmed, there were no dogs and his attitude was humane.
198 Translator’s note: In Belarus relegation usually entails hard labour in a remote part of the country. In Bandazhevsky’s case, his conditions were improved and he did not actually live at the penal settlement but in an abandoned house in a village on the Neman river 30 km from the colony.
DECEMBER 2004
FORGET BANDAZHEVSKY
As we approach the end of 2004, Bandazhevsky is alone, in poor health, deprived of dignity and of any means of existence. What his enemies had not achieved five years ago—the quiet disappearance of this troublesome scientist into the prison system—seems more achievable now, by erasing him, forgetting Bandazhevsky. International opinion had been reassured by him leaving prison, but the no man’s land of relegation may, in the end, prove more dangerous than prison. Bandazhevsky is no longer protected by anyone and, since last summer, the regime has engaged in a more underhand and harsher repression.
What is most worrying about this period of isolation, is that after a period during which he appeared full of energy, encouraged by the euphoria of leaving prison, Yury Bandazhevsky’s health has deteriorated again. He complains of stomach pain, has problems with his liver and his kidneys, inflammation of the Achilles tendon, a torn ligament in the biceps. Galina Bandazhevskaya describes it as a sudden and overall deterioration in health. Is it prison that has done this? Is it some unknown infection?
Having lost all his rights, and no longer having a home, Bandazhevsky has no entitlement to free health care other than that provided at the penal settlement or at a clinic. When he learnt of Bandazhevsky’s state of health, the director at the penal settlement gave permission for him to seek medical help in Minsk but at his own expense. Nursing, hospitalisation, medicaments, operations, anaesthetics cost a lot of money…Three eminent consultants, his colleagues, refused to see the patient and did not dare to intervene to make sure he received hospital treatment free of charge. People avoid him like the plague.
In Minsk, Bandazhevsky consulted a specialist about his Achilles tendon and about the rupture of the ligament in the biceps of his left arm, and he was examined at the health clinic and after seven days, without waiting for the results of the biopsy of the liver and stomach, he was taken
to hospital urgently. The results from the clinic showed, among other things, that he had chronic hepatitis of unknown origin. But Bandazhevsky did not have hepatitis before he was arrested. They operated on his shoulder. The operation went well, his arm was in plaster for four weeks, but he had to leave the hospital before the time prescribed by the doctors through lack of funds. No-one knows the cause of these torn ligaments that keep occurring. The illness that led to him being operated on has no name, no cause, no recognised aetiology. The doctors say that it is very rare. It is certain that prolonged incarceration has ruined his health.
On 6th January 2005, Bandazhevsky should legally be on parole. But…
On 10th January, problems are starting again… Galina Bandazhevskaya tells us:
“Today, I have the firmest conviction that the “powers that be”, whose job it is to enforce the law, are doing their utmost to delay the presentation of Yury’s case to the court for a reduction in sentence, for as long as possible. It’s obvious to me that I need help and that by myself I will never break through their defences. You know that the 6th of January this year is the date on which, according to the law, Yury has the right to parole. But they have started a new game of cat and mouse. The sentencing commission says that these questions are not in its remit, that everything depends on the governor of the re-education relegation colony no 26. As for the prison governor, he says he is waiting for orders from above. [...] Now the relegation colony no 26 is justifying its view that it is impossible to consider parole because, according to the President’s reply to Yury’s request for pardon, Yury needs to admit his guilt and compensate the government for the damage he has caused. Now, all the President’s subordinates are afraid of this edict and are waiting for someone else to make the decision for fear of falling out of favour with the head of state. All the same, Garri Pogonyailo was right when he said that Yury was the President’s personal prisoner, and therefore no law applied. It is he who will decide when and how the prisoner will be freed. That’s why they have been dragging their feet for so long”.
The Crime of Chernobyl- The Nuclear Gulag Page 72
