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Maria Kalesnikava, one of the main leaders of the Belarusian opposition, crashed into a pickup truck in Minsk on Monday morning and has not been heard from since. Kalesnikava was the last of three women to stand against Aliaxandr Lukashenko in our stolen election on August 9; the other two have remained in Lithuania for security reasons.
I hope that Kalesnikava does not have to face the suffering of my friend Sviatlan, as she was detained by the police during a peaceful protest in August.
VIDEO: Detainees in Belarus spoke of incomprehensible cruelty: “You could hear people being beaten outside all night.”
Three were kept in a four-meter cell with 36 other women without access to food, water or toilets. There were so few places to sleep that they took turns. Sometimes they would take some prisoners out into the yard, tell them that now they would be shot, and leave them standing there until they were finally taken back to the cell.
But the most terrifying were the screams. The screams of the detained and tortured men above them were heard throughout the day. When I spoke to Sviatlana seven days after her release, she told me that she would never forget those screams.
That is the terrifying reality of the situation in Belarus at the moment, with Lukashenko trying to maintain power after rigged elections. And yet Brussels is waiting. The proposed sanctions will not be implemented until September 22, two weeks from now. Mr Lukashenko is clearly encouraged by the passivity of the EU and the Russian intervention, a combination of military and propaganda support. Lukashenko has shown that he will continue to increase the repression and Russia has shown that it will support his actions.
It scandalizes me to think of the violence that the people of my country will experience, while the European Union, the only hope that the United States leaves by refusing to intervene, is simply watching. I call on the EU to intensify and strengthen sanctions; Lukashenko and all his children must be on the list.
VIDEO: See how the weekend was in Belarus: perhaps the largest crowd has gathered since the start of the protests
The smoothly polished state repressive machinery runs relentlessly and Russian security and propaganda experts have been used to scale up these efforts. Russia wants to support Lukashenko because it is not good for President Putin to allow democracy in Belarus. As in the case of Sviatlan, these efforts are aimed at making people fear. However, after decades of management under the same strategy, it no longer works.
While each protest draws large crowds, outside support remains important. The sanctions against thousands of detained and tortured people who have died, families who risk their safety and livelihoods and who do not stop protesting in time would show that they are not alone.
Now is a unique time when Belarus is in the news around the world, and my phone keeps ringing with messages from activists and politicians trying to understand what is going on and how they can help. I want to tell them the same thing that I say to them: people in the West and Western governments can do much more than they think.
Sympathy from international allies and condemnation of massive human rights violations alone will not help much. For a peaceful change of government in Belarus, a collective and strong position of the EU is needed. Selective expanded sanctions are urgently needed for those who rigged elections and participated in violent repression. The EU can make these sanctions a reality now, not two weeks from now.
I know that people are more capable than they think thanks to my work with the Belarusian Free Theater, of which I am a co-founder. We wanted to end the government’s cultural monopoly and create performances that would unite Belarus with the rest of the world and not just be a mouthpiece for the government.
To do this, we staged our performances in people’s homes where, we knew, the state could not suddenly ban it. The house was the place where Belarusians could feel free to discuss politics. By turning houses into gathering places and stages, we wanted to show you that there is more space for protests than you thought and that there are more like-minded people. When more than one hundred thousand Belarusians took to the streets from those houses where we appeared, it was surprising to see how many of us really are.
As long as Lukashenko is in power, he will continue to use repressive measures to quell the protests. Of course, Russia is alarming, but Putin will no doubt see that his intervention is fueling hostility among Belarusians who once favored Russia; he will not support Lukashenko at any cost. The EU can prevent Belarus from sinking into obscurity, which had previously allowed Lukashenko to steal elections and stay in power. The sanctions are a small, symbolic, but very necessary step for Belarusians at this time, which will give hope and unity to Kalesnikava and those like her.
Natalia Kaliada is the founder and founder of the Free Theater of Belarus
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