On the occasion of Freedom Day, members of the European Parliament and politicians of the European People’s Party, with the help of the Belarus Free Theatre and the Belarusian House in Warsaw, organized “Belarus Freedom Day”, a thematic event dedicated to Belarus. It featured the exhibition “I am not afraid, let them be afraid!” about Ales Bialiatski, Belarusian Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the chairman of the human rights center “Viasna”. The Belarusian leader attended the event and addressed the guests:
“The regime takes revenge on Ales for his courage and his principles. The regime takes revenge on Ales for his kindness and openness. The regime takes revenge on Ales for his Europeanness and humanity. Ales sacrificed his freedom because he believed in freedom for everyone. That none of us are free unless all of us are free. But the regime is wrong if it thinks that imprisonment will break Ales. People like Ales, like all our political prisoners – they are unbreakable”.
The opening of the exhibition was followed by a performance of the Belarus Free Theatre “Postchildhood”, in which young actors, through acting, shared their own stories of being forced into exile and witnessing a war. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya commented on the performance:
“The stories of “Postchildhood” remind us that the scars left by dictatorship and war are deep and affect not only the physical landscapes of Belarus and Ukraine but also the minds and souls of our children. By being here today and watching this performance, we support them. We show them that we stand by their side and trust in freedom”.
