LO reacts sharply to the fact that at least 13 union leaders have been arrested or abducted in Belarus in recent days. They were on their way to a meeting with Norwegian LO people in Poland, where condemnation of Russia’s war in Ukraine was on the agenda.
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– It’s absolutely awful. These are our colleagues with whom we work closely, says LO leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik to VG.
The Belarusian security police KGB have confirmed the arrest of some of them. Others have not been confirmed and are thus believed to have been abducted, according to LO, which has also received information that their association offices and private homes have been searched.
Suffocating criticism
– These are people who have been very critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They were to meet people from LO and the sister organizations in the Nordic and Baltic region in Warsaw this week. The fact that they were arrested on the way to this meeting indicates that the regime in Belarus is trying to stifle criticism of Russia’s warfare, says the LO leader.
– It is quite obvious that Presidents Lukashenko in Belarus and Putin in Russia are now getting rid of people protesting against the war, Følsvik adds.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs demands release
On Friday afternoon, the LO leader was in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and met Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt (Labor Party). She has promised to follow up the case through the Norwegian Embassy in Vilnius:
– We demand that everyone who has been arrested be released immediately. We will follow this up with the Belarusian authorities, says Huitfeldt.
– Belarus are the ones closest to Russia in this war, therefore Belarus is also covered by the sanctions, she adds.
Among those arrested are Aliaksandr Yarashuk and Siarhei Antusevich, leader and deputy leader of the BKDP, which is LO’s sister organization in Belarus.
– We use what we have of networks to protest. We are also considering setting up a fund to help them legally, says the LO leader.
Yara protests
The Norwegian industrial group Yara has also become involved after the arrest of the trade unionists became known to them earlier this week.
– The arrests of leading members of the independent trade union movement in Belarus are totally unacceptable, and we demand that they be released immediately, writes Yara’s CEO Svein Tore Holsæther in an email to VG.
BKDP organizes employees at the state-owned potassium plant Belaruskali, where Yara has been a significant customer in recent years. Yara announced in January that this contract would expire in the spring of 2022.
Neither Yara nor LO have information on whether any of their shop stewards are among those arrested.
– Even though Yara no longer buys potassium from Belaruskali, we continue our support for the independent trade union movement in Belarus, says Holsæther.
He adds that Yara’s ability to influence the safety and well-being of Belaruskali’s employees has been significantly reduced, after the sanctions against Belarus led to the termination of the customer relationship with the state-owned Belarusian company.
Will throw the Russians out
According to Peggy Hessen Følsvik, LO has also committed itself to throwing the state-friendly Russian trade union movement out of the international union ICUT, of which LO is a member.
Følsvik says that the Russians themselves withdrew recently, but LO is still pushing for a formal suspension. This Russian trade union movement is said to have expressed strong support for Putin’s war in Ukraine.
– We use what we have of networks to protest. We are also considering setting up a fund to help them legally, says the LO leader.
– We will focus where we can, on the trade unions’ legitimate struggle and the totally unjust arrests. This will be the topic when Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the Belarusian opposition leader in exile, will come to Oslo in a few weeks, says the foreign minister.
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