Lawyer-hunger-striker: Kavalenka's hunger strike is his personal choice

Euroradio: You know it yourself what a hunger strike is. What happens to a person who is fasting, physically?

Tatsyana Montsyan: I was on a hunger strike to protest against the plans of government and parliament to adopt a new housing code, which would create conditions for the complete collapse of the communal utilities system. I just fasted for 42 days, so I cannot say exactly what is happening on the 70th day.

On the whole, after a couple of crises on the fourth day and during the interval between the ninth and the fourteenth day, depending on the strength of the organism, practically nothing happens. The organism just switches from feeding through the mouth to survival on internal stocks. In fact, the horrors of the hunger strike are seriously exaggerated. The main thing is to clean the organism, to administer a clyster every 3-4 days. For me, the safe maximum is 50 days. However, 70 days is too much. I think that irrevocable changes in the internals might have started and the organism starts eating the organs which are important for living. No Lukashenka is worth it.

Euroradio: It is especially dangerous when a hunger strike is happening in prison.

Tatsyana Montsyan: Most likely, it is very dangerous and frightful. It is good to do it when you are free and can quit it any time, correctly, on juices. I admire this man's bravery but I think he does it in vain as the health gets destroyed once and forever.

Euroradio: When a person is starving for so long, does he realize what is happening, does he have an adequate perception of the reality?

Tatsyana Montsyan: I don't know, it is hard to say. I worked all the 42 days, went on business trips, participated in court trials, in talk-shows. It's like, when petrol expires in a car at some stage, the organism runs of fat and other safety reserves. The organism starts eating what must not be eaten. I don't know when it will start with Syarhei Kavalenka, but 70 days is very dangerous by any criteria. Another problem is that a hunger strike should not be terminated by the means which our penitentiary system uses. I think that his health is ruined and if he wants to survive, which should be the main aim for any person who got into the claws of the regime, he should stop what he is doing right now.

Euroradio: How to influence a person in order to persuade him to stop fasting?

Tatsyana Montsyan: This is his personal decision, no one can take a decision for somebody else. If he decided to die, purposefully, and chose such way to commit suicide - this is his right. I think this is not sensible but it is easy to contemplate when you are sitting at home giving an interview by the phone.

Euroradio: On the whole, how effective is a hunger strike as a means of protest?

Tatsyana Montsyan: It should be used only with an aim of PR, and for a person's health and purification of an organism. No one will benefit from his death. This is his personal choice of a Samurai. If he thinks that the life they force upon him is unacceptable, so this is his personal choice - to die. It is unlikely that someone may persuade him. I think that he doesn't stop the hunger strike now because he doesn't want people to put their fingers at him saying he got frightened and couldn't make it. However, all those people are not worth his little finger. If I had an opportunity to address to him, I would have told him this.