IN NORWAY: Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide and the Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaja greeted each other on Thursday outside the government’s residence. Photo: HELGE MIKALSEN
––
She is the great fear of dictator Alexander Lukashenko. On Thursday, Svetlana Tikhanovskaja is in Norway to seek support for the opposition in Belarus.
–
And the Norwegian government is wholeheartedly behind Tikhanovskaya and the opposition’s fight against the hated regime and the fight for political rights.
Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide (H) and the Belarusian opposition leader greeted each other with their elbows when they met on Thursday morning.
“I have the highest expectations for the meeting with the Norwegian government,” Tikhanovskaya told the Norwegian press before the two went to the meeting, which will last less than an hour.
The Norwegian Foreign Minister, for his part, was clear on what the government demands of the President of Belarus:
– We have three requirements that the Belarusian regime must meet. That the violence in the country will end, that political prisoners will be released and that President Lukashenko will enter into dialogue with the opposition.
In the space of a year, a Belarusian mother of young children and a language teacher has gone from being anonymous to being the most prominent person in Belarus. She is welcomed by world leaders and politicians in a number of Western countries. And on Friday she is visiting Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide.
1 of 6Photo: HELGE MIKALSEN
– Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is a unifying force for the democratic forces in Belarus. She was thrown out of this difficult task a year ago after the opposition was deprived of the victory in the presidential election in August last year. She has done an outstanding job and she has managed to keep focus on the most important thing, to be a support for the activists, says Head of Department Berit Lindeman in the Norwegian Helsinki Committee to VG.
The committee also presents a challenge to Norway and the company Yara.
– The situation in Belarus is escalating. Norwegian authorities must demand that the Belarusian authorities support local civil society and provide protection to persecuted activists, says Secretary General Geir Hønneland.
He adds:
– At the same time, Norwegian business players, such as Yara, must use their position to demand change.
The official Norway received Tikhanovskaya in the Government’s official residence in Parkveien just behind the Palace. She has just been to the White House and met with President Joe Biden, then to London and 10 Downing Street, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson hosted the Belarusian opposition leader.
—-SUPPORT: The Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya had the highest expectations for the visit to Norway and the meetings with the government and Storting politicians. Photo: HELGE MIKALSEN
––
-_ Convinced I was a political zero
Almost exactly one year ago, the world was seriously brought to the attention of President Alexander Lukashenko, often referred to as Europe’s last dictator. For 26 years he has created a brutal regime and used his autocratic power to oppress the people of the former Soviet republic.
In the so-called elections, Alxandr Lukashenko always won with an overwhelming majority of the votes. Nearly one hundred percent of voters were “satisfied” with the regime’s governance of the country – at every election.
– The regime was convinced that I was a political zero and I therefore would not pose any threat in the presidential election in August 2020. This was how I was allowed to stand for election.
It is Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s explanation of what became a historic event in Belarus’s modern history. Something she has shared with the international press.
The August days in 2020, where for a while it could seem that the opposition had gained a popular foothold in the country. And where the regime seemed to be on the defensive.
President Lukashenko officially won the election with 80 percent of the vote. In reality, there were few who doubted that the opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaja was the winner, and by a large margin, according to international observers.
Tens of thousands and eventually hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in the capital Minsk and in several of the other major cities in the country.
–
