This coming Monday it will be exactly one year since there were elections in Belarus. Or, to be more precise: it is exactly one year since there was an “election” in Belarus. As is the case in most authoritarian states, the Lukashenko regime also regularly carries out such sham exercises in “democracy”, the purpose of which, of course, is not to allow anyone else to challenge the president’s position, but rather to affirm and strengthen his quasi-religious omnipotence. .
Whenever the hard-pressed Belarussian people go to the polls, Lukashenko already narrowly restricts the rights of his opponents, whenever international observers report that the election was neither free nor fair, and whenever the president ends up in office.
It may seem as if the mustachioed dictator simply enjoys mocking his poor subjects through these pathetic and perverse parodies of democracy.
[ Hviterussisk aktivist funnet hengt i park: – Dette er forferdelige nyheter ]
Before the election (or “election”) last year, however, some of us allowed ourselves to hope that this time it would go differently. The president, like most authoritarian rulers, had handled the corona pandemic catastrophically badly: at one point he stated that “vodka, sauna and hard work” were the most effective and strictly necessary measures against the virus, and assured that no one would die of corona in Belarus. .
He was wrong. The arrogant irresponsibility aroused strong anger among the people, and tens of thousands of people took to the streets of both the capital Minsk and other Belarusian cities to demonstrate against the regime.
At the same time, the opposition in the country, for a rare occasion, had found a unifying candidate, the 37-year-old, former English teacher Svetlana Tikhanovskaja. Her main campaign promise was simply to hold a new, truly democratic election, something that made it possible for other Belarusian opposition figures to rally behind her banner.
The mood was tense, but there was a glimmer of hope, a slight spark of optimism, among Belarusian pro-democracy activists in early August last year.
[ Er du lettkrenka eller rasist? Kryss av! ]
But alas! Hope would soon turn into desperation. There is no doubt that Tikhanovskaya had considerable support, but the “election” was, as usual, a farce, state television and other Lukashenko-loyal media declared the president a “winner”, the protests against the abuse of power were mercilessly defeated.
Critics of the regime in large numbers were arrested, subjected to degrading and inhuman treatment, detained indefinitely, without specific complaints or legally applicable sentences. Thousands of Belarusians have since left the country.
Tikhanovskaya himself has had to go into exile in neighboring Lithuania. But she has not allowed herself to be silenced. Without rest, she and many others have continued the struggle for freedom and democracy. There is little doubt that the president feels the pressure.
Norwegian governments must express our unconditional support for a free and democratic Belarus.
If you want to be an effective dictator, the number one rule of thumb is to carry out your abuse of power as quietly as possible. Lukashenko has been doing well for many years. But now it may seem as if he is about to lose his grip. Recently, the Belarusian regime has carried out several grotesque and bizarre actions that have not been able to avoid attracting international attention.
It started in May, when a Ryanair plane passing over Belarusian territory on its way from Athens to Vilnius was forced to land at the airport in Minsk. One of the passengers on board the plane, journalist and anti-Lukashenko activist Raman Pratasievich, was arrested immediately after landing with his girlfriend. The authorities claimed that they suspected that there was a bomb on board the plane, something that was openly bluff and a pure pretext to get rid of a troublesome critic of the regime.
Regular hijackings by the state are in any case completely extraordinary and sensational, and the episode was then also condemned from all angles, including NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide.
During the ongoing Olympics in Tokyo, Belarus tried to kidnap one of its own athletes, sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaja, because she had been critical of the dispositions of the Belarusian Olympic Committee, which is led by Lukashenko’s eldest son Viktor. Tsimanouskaja was escorted to the airport against her will, but managed to contact Japanese police, saying that she “feared for her life” and thus avoided being seen on the plane to Minsk. She has since been granted political asylum in Poland.
The most macabre episode took place in Kiev earlier this week, when exile activist Vitaly Shishov was found hanging in a park. Shishov rented the Belarusian House in Ukraine, an organization that assists Belarusians who have fled persecution in their homeland. Ukrainian police have launched a homicide investigation. There are many indications that Shishuv has simply been liquidated.
[ – Dette er forferdelige nyheter ]
“Belarusian authorities have been behind several killings fingered as suicide,” Berit Lindeman, head of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, told Dagsavisen on Tuesday. In recent weeks, the government has raided the offices of several human rights organizations in the country and arrested numerous critics. Lindemann, who has worked with Belarus for 25 years, says that the situation in the country is now “at the breaking point”.
Mr Lukashenko has survived many crises during the 27 years he has ruled, but appears increasingly desperate. At the same time, opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaja is on the offensive. In recent weeks, she has had talks with both US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The fact that doors have been opened for her in Washington and London is perhaps a sign that the international community is finally ready to take the Belarussian people seriously.
On August 12, Tikhanovskaya will come to Oslo to meet Foreign Minister Eriksen Søreide. Norway has followed up on the sanctions imposed by the EU on the Lukashenko regime. It is good. Now the government must use the opportunity to express our unconditional support for a free and democratic Belarus.
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