The Belarusian leader spoke at the general meeting of the group “For a Democratic Belarus” at the OSCE in Vienna. Representatives of Estonia, Norway, Sweden, France, Poland, Lithuania, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States attended it.
Here are the most important statements from Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s address.
📌 “The OSCE should demand assistance to political prisoners in Belarus and access to them. Shouldn’t we at least try to find out what conditions our Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski is held in? What about Volha Zalatar, a mother of five children? Or Ryhor Kastusiou, the leader of the BPF party, who is still in prison despite cancer? Don’t stop filing the requests even if the regime ignores or rejects them”.
📌 “We have made a humanitarian list of over 200 political prisoners in critical condition. Ihar Lednik, who died in Lukashenka’s prison this week, was on that list. We cannot bring him back to life but we must prevent further deaths. I urge your governments to bring the issue of the immediate release of political prisoners to the UN level. And your diplomats in Minsk can demand access to prisons, especially to those kept incommunicado”.
📌 “The fact that the regime refused to invite international observers from the OSCE to the so-called “single voting day” speaks for itself. I call on the OSCE to refuse to recognize the results of this campaign and continue documenting human rights violations in Belarus”.
📌 “Isolating the regime does not necessarily mean isolating the people. We need to simplify obtaining visas, residence permits, and alien passports for Belarusians. In spring, we will present the first samples of the new Belarusian passport – I urge your governments to support this project”.
