Belarusian Political Prisoners Need Help Right Now
- Natallia Radzina
- 20.04.2023, 18:43
We can save Belarus only by protecting our heroes.
Natallia Radzina, the Editor-in-Chief of the Charter97.org website, writes about the situation with prisoners of conscience.
The world is still indifferent when people are killed with impunity in Belarusian prisons. We know nothing about the fate of the leader of the Belarusian opposition Mikalai Statkevich for more than 70 days. No letters, no calls, even a lawyer is not allowed to see him, not to mention relatives. Is he alive? His state of health remains in doubt after three covid cases suffered, after a long stay in solitary confinement and a punishment cell in one of the worst Belarusian prisons located in the town of Hlybokaye. We do not know.
Yes, the West is busy with the war in Ukraine. Horrible war crimes are being committed there. Nevertheless, how is it possible not to notice and dismiss what is happening to people in our country? Mikalai Statkevich's case is not the only one. Thousands of people in prison today are subjected to horrendous treatment and torture. We know only a fraction of what happens to a few of them. Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk has been held in a punishment cell of the women's prison for repeat offenders for months. Her health has seriously deteriorated. Viktoria Kulsha lost 20 kilograms and looks so exhausted there after a hunger strike and torture. Ksenia Lutskina may die in custody from brain cancer. Yauhen Afnahel is losing his sight. Andrei Voinich needs an urgent liver transplant...
Letters from political prisoners do not always come and there is not much information due to censorship. Lawyers, frightened by the threat of losing their licenses and the arrests of their colleagues, are extremely succinct and do not make contact either with relatives, not to mention human rights activists and journalists.
The lists of the Viasna Human Rights Center are far from being full: the number of political prisoners in Belarus, judging by the fact that arrests have been taking place daily for more than two years, should already reach 8,000-10,000 prisoners.
The stories of relatives of political prisoners are full of pain and bitterness. What do they say? That it seems that their loved ones are forgotten and no one needs them. That there is almost no assistance to the families of prisoners of conscience from funds created abroad. That they are feeling no solidarity from hundreds of thousands of emigrants who left Belarus in 2020-2021.
There are many questions for Tikhanouskaia and her structures. What do these "cabinets", "offices", and "coordinating councils" do abroad? They are imitating, bragging, creating new funds, raising funds for the beloved themselves, blether and going on senseless but vain trips around the world.
Where are Western sanctions against the Lukashenka regime? Why haven't they been imposed for over a year? Who is lobbying for their non-imposition for such a long period, despite the deterioration of the human rights situation to the extreme? Again, the question is: what is the point of Tikhanouskaia’s foreign trips and her campaign, if the pressure on the regime is not increasing, but only weakening, and dangerous talk has even begun about the possibility of lifting European sanctions against Belarusian potash?
The questions are fair, as you see, and the pain of the families of political prisoners is reasonable.
However, it is solidarity that saves lives. What, for example, can we do for Mikalai Statkevich right now? Carry out solidarity actions, go on protest action near the parliaments and governmental buildings of the countries you are in now, demanding more sanctions against the Lukashenka regime. Appeal to international human rights organizations, urging them to respond to the abuse of political prisoners. Call on the Socialist International and the European Social Democrats to pay attention to the fate of the leader of the Belarusian Social Democrats. Ask Western politicians to write letters to the head of the Hlybokaye colony and to the Department for the Execution of Punishments of the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs (officials are forced to respond to this and are afraid of international publicity). Mikalai Statkevich's European "godparents" are German Bundestag member Margarete Bause, and Roger Nordmann, the President of the Social Democratic group in the Swiss parliament. It is necessary to achieve their reaction and inclusion in the struggle for human life.
Political prisoners need urgent help. We can save Belarus only by protecting our heroes.
Natallia Radzina, the Editor-in-Chief of the Charter97.org website