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Mourners pay last respects to Viktar Ivashkievich

Hundreds of mourners packed a funeral services hall in Minsk on Saturday to pay last respects to veteran opposition politician Viktar Ivashkievich (Ivashkevich).

The casket containing the body of the 54-year-old Ivashkievich was open for public viewing in the funeral services hall at number 12 Alshewskaha Street from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Those attending included Stanislaw Shushkevich, the first formal head of state in independent Belarus; Valery Fralow, a retired army general and ex-member of the House of Representatives; Vital Rymashewski, co-chairman of Belarusian Christian Democracy who was a candidate in the 2010 presidential election; and other prominent opposition leaders such as Lyavon Barshchewski, Vintsuk Vyachorka and Henadz Loyka.

“By his romanticism and optimism, Viktar disarmed his opponents and encouraged his friends,” said Mr. Vyachorka. “Viktar was a cheerful, positive and kind-hearted person, who was never lacking in humor. He loved life and people and therefore he was dear to his family, friends and all Belarusians. He led people to follow him and was convinced that a politician should rely on people for support. The name of Viktar Ivashkievich will sound loud when what he fought for comes true.”

Mr. Barshchewski recalled Mr. Ivashkievich saying, “Now is not the time to write memoirs. It is the time to plan the future.” That is why we should think about the future about what he dreamed of,” Mr. Barshchewski said.

Zhanna Litvina, chairperson of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, pointed out that Mr. Ivashkievich was a prominent journalist who had been punished by authorities for telling the truth. “He personifies honest journalism,” she said.

Mr. Ivashkievich was buried in the Pawnochnyya Cemetery near Minsk.

The leader of an opposition group called Belaruski Rukh (Belarusian Movement) died in Minsk City Clinical Hospital No. 9 on October 3. He had waited for a donor liver for a long time but never had transplant surgery.

Mr. Ivashkievich was born in Minsk on September 21, 1959. He was a member of Belarusian revivalist youth groups called Maystrownya and Talaka in the 1980s and a member of the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF) since its founding in 1988. He held various key positions in the party, including chairman of the Minsk city organization and deputy chairman. He was an aide to presidential candidate Andrey Sannikaw during the 2010 election. In February 2011, he and 85 other members of the BPF quit the party in protest against the new leadership’s policy. They subsequently formed Belaruski Rukh, pledging to push for the release of the political prisoners, free and fair elections without Alyaksandr Lukashenka, and the toughest possible sanctions against the Belarusian government. Mr. Ivashkevich was elected chairman of the organization`s founding committee.

Mr. Ivashkievich is known as the main organizer of most major opposition demonstrations and an advocate of the rights of working people. A graduate of the journalism department of Belarusian State University, Mr. Ivashkievich served as editor in chief of a newspaper called Rabochy (Worker) between its establishment in 1997 and closure five years later. In 2002, he was elected vice president of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions.

In September 2002, Mr. Ivashkievich was sentenced to a two-year "restricted freedom" term for publishing an article titled, "The thief should be in prison," which was seen as a libel against Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

He was repeatedly given jail terms and fines for his political activities and went on a hunger strike twice. Last year, Belarusian authorities imposed a foreign travel ban on Mr. Ivashkievich for calling on the European Union to impose sanctions against Belarus and stop buying Belarusian petrochemical products until the release of opposition activist Syarhey Kavalenka.

Mr. Ivashkievich is survived by his wife and an adult son.