Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “Mikalai Statkevich and Siarhei Tsikhanouski have already spent 1000 days behind bars. A terrible figure. And although these men are courageous, unyielding, and will endure, these 1000 days are stolen from them and their families. In our apartment, there are photographs of Siarhei everywhere so that the children do not forget what he looks like. Every week, we watch his videos together so that our youngest daughter, who has not seen him for three years, remembers his voice.
There was not a single day when I did not ask myself the question: what else can I do to free Siarhei and all political prisoners faster? And this question makes me keep going without giving up. I turn my pain into work. And I want each of us to ask ourselves this question every day: what else can each of us do?
Instead of saying we are waiting for their release, let’s say we are working for their release. And we will not stop until everyone is home.”
Also, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya read a poem by Siarhei Tsikhanousky, which he passed on from prison a couple of days ago.
You can read the literal translation of the poem below.
“I recently learned,
That there are those who are tired
It's easy for me to imagine,
How hard it is for you!
If near you now
A foreign landscape.
If it's not easy for you,
When you're too far away
If it seems like all gone
When you're deprived of everything
Look out your window
Look out your window
Look at us
Those who are in jail now
Behind the bars
And can't see a thing
Prison sentence like age
On two a half of a hundred
No hair of gray
And you can't see your loved ones
On my walks, the scenery,
Only concrete every time,
Shackles on your hands,
You look only at the floors.
These nights without sleep,
Barking prison dogs and voices.
On the iron we lie
Called sleeping.
There's not enough to go around,
There's nothing to buy
And our bellies ache
From this prison food.
And you can't write
What you want to say
Penitentiary welcomes a lot.
We don't care anymore.
Pretend you're happy,
When you've made a report
What you were convicted for
And what are you deprived of.
Call them articles,
And your professional report.
Like a bad dream,
But it never ends.
I know it's not easy for you
I know it's hard for you to fight
But look out the window,
Look out your window.”
