“As of today, July 7th, 534 people are recognized as political prisoners in Belarus. Yesterday, the Supreme Court sentenced Viktar Babaryka to 14 years of imprisonment – because he believed that Belarus needs a good manager but not a dictator – and decided to run for president.
Like my husband, blogger and activist, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, like politician Mikalai Statkevich – and thousands of Belarusians – Viktar Babaryka will be released and rehabilitated and will be able to participate in a new presidential election.
We are already working on a project of rehabilitation of people imprisoned on political grounds – to release them within two days. My representative on Legal Affairs, Siarhej Zikratski, has prepared a draft Act of Rehabilitation, which you can find on my website.
I know that these court hearings in Belarus are painful. It is painful to hear that human rights defender Marfa Rabkova lost consciousness in prison. It is painful to know how the regime takes revenge on the European Union, sending migrants to the border with Lithuania and Poland while not allowing Belarusians to travel freely in and out of the country.
But I want you to remember: the regime does all of this because it has no control over the country for more than a year. Uncertainty causes it to make mistakes, self-isolate, forces the regime to intimidate us even more. And our task is to do everything possible to help the repressed and rebuild the things it destroyed.
More than 15,000 people joined the Workers' Movement to prepare for the strike. Many of them work in tobacco companies, an industry with a high level of corruption. Belarusians join the plan “Peramoga“. Now, these are the two main mobilization forces in Belarus – and they work together.
Yesterday, Valery Kavaleuski and Anatoli Liabedzka, along with our partners – Coordination Council, National Anti-Crisis Management, community Honest People – launched the “People’s Constitution” campaign. The project of the Constitution has been drafted by my representative on Constitutional reform. Austrian MFA has assisted us in improving the project.
Yesterday, the regime forced the closure of the Lithuanian embassy and consulates in Belarus. Obviously, this is a response to the official status received by my Office in Lithuania. I spoke with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda yesterday and thanked him for the determination of Lithuania.
We will continue to work on opening similar offices in other countries. These representations will work with foreign politicians and the Belarusian diaspora, keep Belarus on the international agenda, but the main thing is to help Belarusian organizations and initiatives inside Belarus.
I also met with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, yesterday. I shared my vision of the format of Belarus' participation in the Eastern Partnership, as the regime suspended its participation in it. I asked President Michel to do everything possible to close loopholes in sanctions for the regime’s oligarchs and ‘wallets’.
Also, yesterday, we had meetings with Deputy Assistant Secretary at the US State Department George Kent and Canadian Foreign Minister Mark Garneau. With Mr. Kent, we discussed how to expand support for Belarusians and the Belarus Democracy Act – so that the US can extend individual sanctions to different areas – for example, state propagandists.
With Minister Garneau, we discussed the investigation of Ryanair plane hijacking – the headquarters of ICAO is in Montreal, and Canada is ready to help us. As far as we know, the investigation is now being deliberately delayed by the regime – but it must be completed. My team has been in contact with Raman Pratasevich’s parents all this time – and they still have almost no information about their son and his condition. He is still being held hostage under house arrest with guards.
I will have a working visit to Ireland next week, and we’re planning a visit to the United States at the nearest time. The visit to Ireland will help us put Belarus on the agenda of the UN Security Council. In the US, we plan to discuss the joint efforts to release all political prisoners and their rehabilitation, holding a new presidential election in Belarus this year.
We are also continuing consultations on the high-level conference on the Belarus crisis resolution. I have already raised this issue with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Slovenian Foreign Minister Ange Logar, German Chancellery, and OSCE representatives. Charles Michel also stated that the EU is ready to endorse such a conference.
Together with the Belarusian Council for Culture and democratic forces, we are now holding the Week of Belarusian Culture worldwide. Belarusian diaspora read poetry, hold events, concerts, and exhibitions. You can find the program of events in Lithuania, Austria, Poland, Brazil, United Kingdom, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Ukraine, France, and other countries on my website.
I also want to declare July 16th as the Day of Belarus Women’s Solidarity. On this day in 2020, Maria Kalesnikava, Veranika Tsepkalo, and I made a decision in 15 minutes to join our forces and unite our presidential campaign headquarters. I call on Belarusians within the country and worldwide, on our international partners to show solidarity with courageous women of Belarus who have gone through the election, protests, torture, and became the face of the Belarusian revolution.
Many of them – like Maria Kalesnikava, head of TUT.by media Maryna Zolatava, activist Antanina Kanavalava, mother of five Volha Zalatar – remain behind bars, but the whole world admires them. By the way, today is the birthday of political prisoner Volha Zalatar – congratulate her, send her a letter. And write letters to our prisoners. As I said, there are 534 people officially recognized as political prisoners. They need our support”.
