Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya gave speech at the meeting of the EPP Young Members Network in Bucharest, Romania:
“Dear EPP friends,
Thank you, dear Roberta and dear Eva for your strong words, for your bravery, and for everything you do for Belarus and Ukraine.
I will never stop repeating how much I admire women-leaders like you. If Lukashenka was in this room, he would probably have a heart attack.
In his obsolete world view, the place for a woman is in the kitchen to cook borshch, but not in politics.
When in 2020 I ran for president instead of my imprisoned husband, the dictator registered me as a joke. “No one will vote for a woman”, he said. But I won. We won.
But like a classic coward, Lukashenka refused to step down. Instead, he unleashed terror against his own people. Our beautiful peaceful protest was drowned in blood, in tears, in pain.
Lukashenka often repeats: “I don’t fight with women”. However, this is exactly what he does.
And it is not only women. Among 1500 political prisoners almost half are young people. They are activists and volunteers, entrepreneurs and journalists, paramedics and young engineers.
The regime also attacks students. One of them was at the student desk, when four KGB thugs in masks broke into an Economics lecture.
They slammed his face onto the floor, and broke his fingers. And the only reason for their brutality were 8 anti-war comments he posted on Youtube.
Some of political prisoners were just 16 when they landed in Lukashenka’s jails. Some already celebrated their third birthday behind bars, and missed their school graduation party.
Some tried to kill themselves, when they got their draconian sentences of 5, 8 or 12 years. One couldn’t no longer bear such torment and tried to cut his throat…with a pen – the only personal item he was allowed to have. It is sickening.
In very rare letters home, political prisoners write that they don’t have dreams about freedom anymore. Their dreams are about food, just normal food.
Another one, Stsiapan Latypau, is dying from scurvy – the disease when your body severely lacks vitamin C.
Some others already lost hope of release, and are ready to end up like Alexei Navalny.
In prisons, political prisoners are forced to bear a yellow label, which means they are political and subject to harsher treatment. Sometimes you can be beaten and tortured.
Many including my husband are being held incommunicado, in full isolation, in punishment cells. This is the worst form of torture.
The only information political prisoners receive is from propaganda newspapers. It takes some time to learn how to read between the lines, to understand what’s really going on.
The regime is doing everything possible to make them feel abandoned.
It forces their relatives to publicly denounce children, sisters, and brothers as enemies of the state.
We read it in books about Stalin times, but we never believed it would be possible in the 21-st century.
Lawyers who are the only contact for political prisoners with the outside world, are often repressed too.
Those who send parcels or letters to political prisoners, got detained. The very solidarity is criminalized.
Political prisoners are having their own fight. And the goal of this fight is simple — at the very least to survive.
And our moral obligation is to fight for them. I know that they count on us. And they count on you.
First of all, we should make their release our priority and our commitment. Obviously, we don’t have a key to prisons. But we have other tools. For almost two years, no strong sanctions were imposed for repressions, torture, and political prisoners.
If the regime knows that for every death, for every illegal detention, it will be taken into account – the situation could be very different. Help us to advocate for stronger sanctions against the regime, and for opening investigation of its crimes.
And second, I ask you to highlight the stories of political prisoners, especially young people, so their fight is not forgotten. Swiss-German NGO Libereco has launched the campaign of “adopting” political prisoners. Already, more than 400 parliamentarians from all over the world became “godparents”.
Some EPP leaders did it as well. Roberta Metsola became a godmother for Palina Sharenda Panasiuk, and Radek Sikorski became a “godparent” for my husband Siarhei Tsikhanouski.
I ask you to join this campaign as well. We brought brochures for you, where you can read how to do it. It will take five minutes of your time, but for people behind bars – it might save their life.
You can tweet about them, write an article, call their family or send a letter to prison. Every gesture of solidarity matters.
Dear friends,
I know that it is not the most optimistic speech you heard today.
But it is rooted in reality, in the truth of what is happening in Belarus right now.
It is important that we do not turn away from these hard truths, but rather face them head-on with determination and hope.
Remember, our struggle is not just a Belarusian struggle; it is a struggle for democracy, for human rights, for the very essence of what Europe stands for.
As you enter the electoral campaign for the European Parliament, I call on you to become champions of democracy.
To be advocates of all those who risk their lives and their freedom in the name of values we all here stand for.
Include Ukraine and Belarus in your election program. Because the fight for freedom is a global one.
Provide Ukraine with everything it needs. The victory of Ukraine will be the ultimate defeat of Putin and Lukashenka.
And stand with those who fight for free Belarus. Changes in Belarus will bring Ukraine’s victory faster, and will become a huge blow to Putin.
I encourage you to include Belarusian activists and political parties in the work of EPP, YEPP and Young Members network. One day, Belarus will become a part of the European Union, and we can prepare for this day already now.
In the end, let me invite you to join the international Day of Solidarity with Belarus, on March 25. This is our national holiday when we traditionally celebrate our freedom and independence.
I am confident, that one day, we will be celebrating it together with you, in Minsk and other Belarusian cities, without fear but with pride.
Thank you for your attention, your compassion, and your support.”
