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Belarusian protests in 2020
A review of the events
by chiara Parrucci
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Since August 2020, Belarus has been living through a period of crisis of human rights triggered by the presidential election considered by many neither transparent nor fair. In January, I interviewed Natallia Satsunkevich, a human rights activist from the Center “Viasna” to learn more. This NGO is one of the oldest and biggest human rights centers in Belarus, active in promotion of democracy and human rights and in support of civic initiatives. Created during the protests in 1996, from 2004 it is part of the International Federation for Human Rights. While doing their job, the life of Natallia and her colleagues are often endangered.
How it all started
Belarusians were called to elect the President of the Republic on the 9th of August 2020. The whole election process has been accompanied by peaceful acts of protests. In June, Belarusian people organised chains of solidarity after Viktar Babaryka saw his candidacy rejected. He was considered one of the three top candidates and opponents of the incumbent president Lukashenka, together with Valery Tsapkala and Siarhei Tsikhanouski. All of them got arrested before the election took place.
Following the arrest of her husband, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya took his place and led the electoral campaign next to Maryia Kalesnikava and Veranika Tsapkala. Sviatlana’s party was supported by many among the population not only or not particularly because of the party programme, but as an alternative to Lukashenka, that is, as an alternative to “the absence of change” as Satsunkevich described it. Lukashenka has been in power since 1994, as he consolidated his position with two referendums allowing him to take part in all the subsequent elections.
The 9th of August 2020
When the election results went public, Lukashenka obtained 79.9% of the vote and for the sixth time in a row won against his opponents. People from all segments of the society claimed that the election was rigged and took to the streets in a peaceful act of protest. “Generally speaking, they were young people, mostly men, but there were also some women” Satsunkevich said. In the following days, a growing number of women joined the protests. From the 12th of August, during the day Belarusian women, all in white with flowers in their hands, started marching along the main streets of Minsk.
Violence against protesters
This is not the first time for Belarusians to take to the streets. The year 1996 is remembered as the year of massive protests against the referendum that brought some important changes in the governance strengthening the power in the hands of the president.
What is different is the kind of violence used to repress civilians.
“ The violence against the people detained” says Satsunkevich “was systemic, applied in largescale, and widespread all around the country”. During the most intense days of the 9th, 10th, and 11th of August, people on the streets were hit and attacked with non-lethal weapons, rubber bullets, tear gas, flash-bang grenades. “Grenades, for instance, were thrown into crowds of people, without taking into consideration whether there were women, children or elderly people among them”. Besides, many protesters were detained by the Police, threatened, and tortured at the Police stations or put in solitary confinement for 2 to 3 days.
Students participation to protests
The first two Sundays after the elections, namely the 16th and the 23rd of August, Belarusian students gathered to protest. Students chose to show their dissent and some actions of protest were held inside Universities. In particular, during the 1st of September (the first day of the school year) the police took over the protesters. Many of them were stopped and arrested.
Minsk, 9th of August © Vladimir Gridin “radio Svoboda”
Teachers taking part in the protests next to their students had to face administrative detention and in many cases were fired afterwards. Many students went through the same destiny and were expelled. In order to stifle protests, many universities saw a change of the Dean too.
“ At Minsk State Linguistic University, students organised sit-ins, sung protest songs in different languages, [then] the administration called the OMON, a special militia force, that started detaining students directly inside the University”, Satsunkevich recalled.
On the 12th of November, the whole group of students part of ZBS, the Association of Belarusian Students, was detained.
Nowadays, the situation with students has changed: many continue to support the protests, but they do it in a more discreet way. “At the beginning, the protests were more manifest and involved more students and were more animated. Now, given the fact that a part of the most active students have been arrested or are waiting in pre-trial detention facilities, the rest are very scared and continue the activity the way they used to”, explained Satsunkevich.
The role that the internet has played during the protests is primary: Belarus is a country where the media are controlled by the authorities, but the internet is not so easy to control. For some days, at the beginning of the protests, it had been blocked and people were not able to verify what was happening around them.
The Telegram channel NEXTA-live has been providing real-time news and updates of the events mixing the official sources with citizen journalism. It has now been banned in Belarus, as the authorities stated that it is helping with the coordination of the protests.
There is also SHOD, the digital platform, where citizens are allowed to vote the candidates that will – according to the same platform – protect people’s interests in a national dialogue (that is, they will represent the interests of the national community in a dialogue with the current authorities).
“ Belarusians, through the internet, tried to exercise their rights, the same rights that the government takes away from them. [Through it] there have been attempts to count ballot papers, to count how many people participated in the marches”, commented Satsunkevich.
The current situation in Belarus made many opponents flee the country. Among these, there is the leader of the democratic Belarus, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the wife of the blogger and former presidential candidate detained in the pre-trial detention facility since May.
Satsunkevich quoted the names of the opponents that either are sitting in jail (as Maryia Kalesnikava), or were obliged to flee the country (like Volha Kavalkova): “It’s a choice between freedom out of the country or prison in Belarus”. And then added: “We, as Human Rights Center, say that people finding themselves in such conditions are obliged to go away, this has nothing to do with a voluntary choice, both the rights are limited and there’s no chance to fully exercise one’s civil and political rights”.
These words are supported by the facts: Once in Latvia, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has been able to meet many heads of State and Government, such as the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the French President Emanuel Macron, and also the EU High Representative Josep Borrell. During these meetings she raised awareness of the ongoing repression and human rights crisis in her country.
She has also received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2020.
Victors Avenue, Minsk, 10th of August © Natalia Fedosenko/ TaSS
Since the very beginning, the European Commission recognised the presidential election as “neither free nor fair” and condemned the brutal response of the authorities against the peaceful protesters. Later on “called for a democratic solution to the crisis through an inclusive national dialogue with the broader society”.
Starting from October 2020 the Council of Europe has sanctioned 88 individuals and 7 entities with travel ban and asset freeze. These people are considered responsible for supporting in various ways the climate of violence and repression against protesters, opponents, and journalists.
Finally, in December 2020, the European Commission adopted a €24 million assistance package, whose immediate beneficiaries are Belarusian people, intended as civil society and independent media, youth, and small and middle-sized enterprises. The health sector too will receive the support to improve the response to COVID-19 pandemic. However, many questions are left open: for example, who will take the decisions on the behalf of the Belarusian people?
Peaceful protest in Minsk, 23rd of August © Spring96.org
As a general comment, Satsunkevich replied: “The sensation is that Belarusians are not left alone, they are doing the right thing, trying to fight for their rights”.
At the end of the interview I asked Natallia what the Human Rights Center “Viasna” hopes for the future of its own country.“During 2020 more than 31,000 people in Belarus have been subjected to repression in its several forms. Things like these never happened before. Each of these people should see their rights restored and we call to create a mechanism of several compensations. Of course people want to be assured that something like this will never happen again”. Besides, the Human Rights Center advocates initiating criminal proceedings in a public trial against the members of the police units who committed crimes against the civilians during the protests.
We need to remember that not only have protests in Belarus have lasted more than half a year, but also that as of today in Belarusian jails there are more than 160 political prisoners and another 100 have been prosecuted for political reasons.
