05.07.2010
Alyaksandr Lukashenka with his sons, including the youngest one, Mikalay, attended the ceremony.
“The Belarusian people have never surrendered to enemies, and we are ready today to face the toughest ordeals for the sake of independence and the right to live freely on this land,” Mr. Lukashenka said.
“Belarus has never been a source of military threat for anyone, but we will revere and defend what have been created by the people,” he said. “We have learnt the lessons of history well and understand what terrible losses any conflict may bring to anyone, the winners and losers.”
Mr. Lukashenka expressed regret that the international community had “failed to make proper conclusions from bitter lessons of history.” “As if having played war little in their childhood, some politicians begin to use adult wars, armed raids, economic terror and information attacks rather than civilized methods to address problems," he said.
“The peoples of the Earth have been now given a chance to bring a change in the history of the humankind,” he said. “The will of the peoples and the responsibility of their leaders are required for the step.”
“Let our common memory help us melt away the political ice, continue to live further in the environment of mutual tolerance and allow each other to be different and follow different paths,” Mr. Lukashenka added.
The reburial ceremony kicked off celebrations of Belarus’ Independence Day that also marks the liberation of Minsk from the Nazi invaders.
More than 50,000 people gathered in front of the newly built church with a crypt where remains of landmark Belarusian figures will be reburied. Mitropolitan Filaret, head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Belarus, also took part in the ceremony.