“Dear Madam Prime Minister, Madam Speaker, participants of the Kalinoŭski Forum,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is an honor for me to be a part of the Second Kalinowski Forum, this time speaking in front of you. Since the First Kalinowski Forum on August 24, 2020, a lot has changed. Belarusians have grown and matured. We have learned how to speak our minds. We are better at expressing our opinions and needs, our dreams and worries, our frustrations and fears.
Simultaneously, there are many things in Belarusian lives – individual and collective – that have gotten worse.
In the present day, 22-year old Belarusian Yauheni Kalinouski – just like his namesake – is taking part in the revolution. Yauheni is a prominent student, a laureate of multiple national academic awards, a participant of international exchange programs. He was sentenced to four years in prison for taking part in a peaceful protest in the middle of summer 2020. The charges against him do not have any tangible proof. Letters to and from him are not mailed. He is subjected to utter isolation and unfairness. One of Yauheni’s former cellmates shared with his girlfriend that Yauheni did not want to tell her about the horrors of prison in order not to upset her.
What if your son, your brother, your loved one was to be detained unfairly and held in inhumane conditions? What if he was afraid to tell you how gruesome it all is not to upset you? And what if this happened to your whole family? Your whole nation?
Over 32,000 people have been arrested in Belarus since August 9, 2020. More than 2,500 criminal cases have been initiated against journalists, human rights defenders, activists, and peaceful protesters. Over 1,000 cases of torture have been documented by human rights NGOs. There are 290 political prisoners in Belarus. At least eight peaceful protesters were killed. Meanwhile, not a single government official has been held accountable for the brutality, repression, torture, and murder.
Kastus Kalinoŭski said that “it’s not the nation that is made for the government but the government that is made for the nation”. The numbers make you understand that in today’s Belarus, a dictator’s evil intentions lead us to the point where we – as a nation – were forced to think we are made for the government. Now, we are making the government for the nation. And we need your help.
The position of someone asking for help is a vulnerable one. To be declined politely is something that Belarusians are used to. Trust me, we don’t mind as it is our own busyness to solve. Last week we launched an online platform that allows Belarusians to vote in favor of international negotiations with the current Belarusian government for the peaceful transitions of power. Already around six hundred fifty thousand Belarusians have expressed their wish for a new Belarus. We are a force to be reckoned with.
And yet, we still ask for help because to ask is to acknowledge our own weaknesses. At the moment, our greatest weakness is time. We can make this peaceful revolution happen on our own. But the clock is ticking while the fates of people are being destroyed. People lose lives, their loved ones, their jobs, their faith. This cannot go on.
We need your help with the following: organizing negotiations with Belarusian authorities on an international platform and being ready to form a diverse group of mediators, immediately stopping the police violence and restoring justice and holding the ones in charge accountable, guaranteeing a safe return for the Belarusian people forced to flee, ensuring the respect of fundamental human rights.
We are thankful for the help we’ve already received. Every gesture of solidarity, every sanction towards the dictatorship, every Belarusian refugee saved, every action that makes Belarusians acquire human rights is bringing us a step closer to democracy.
Belarus is in the process of peacefully fighting for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law, and human rights – these are all the values you stand for here in the European Union. Belarus is right on the border of the EU. These values cannot be betrayed, we are very close to you. Let today’s debates on this forum help us find actionable solutions that will matter.
Thank you.
Aciu”.
