Index on Censorship weekly round-up
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Friday, 09 August 2024
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Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets of Minsk after the disputed presidential election in 2020.
Photo: Homoatrox
Four years ago today, Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka claimed victory in the country’s elections garnering more than 80% of the vote. The victory meant a sixth term in office.
That 80% figure is as meaningless as Vladimir Putin’s recent 88% in Russia and Paul Kagame’s patently ridiculous 99.15% in Rwanda. ([link removed]) If you’re a dictator it’s just a matter of choosing a number you’re comfortable with.
The average Belarusian was not at all comfortable with that 80% and hundreds of thousands went onto the streets to protest.
Such huge demonstrations did not sit well with Lukashenka and they were met with a huge show of force.
At the time of the 2020 election, the EU said the election was “neither free nor fair ([link removed]) ”, the UK said it “did not accept the result” and called the subsequent repression of protesters “grisly” ([link removed]) while the US Government said “severe restrictions on ballot access for candidates, [the] prohibition of local independent observers at polling stations, intimidation tactics employed against opposition candidates, and the detentions of peaceful protesters and journalists marred the process”.
The demonstrations did not manage to topple Lukashenka, one of Russia’s biggest allies. Vladimir Putin congratulated him ([link removed]) on his victory and offered military help to put down protests.
Almost 1,400 political prisoners now languish in Belarusian jails ([link removed]) , according to the human rights centre Viasna. That’s one political prisoner for every day that has elapsed since the rigged 2020 election.
A few weeks ago, the UK and 37 other countries once more condemned the human rights situation in Belarus. Speaking on behalf of all these countries, the Slovenian ambassador to the OSCE Barbara Zvokelj said ([link removed]) those jailed “experience torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, acts of physical or sexual violence, lack of basic medical care and privacy, lack of a fair trial, psychological pressure and discrimination, with their cells and clothing marked with yellow tags.”
Those behind bars experience horrendous conditions and include Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski ([link removed]) , the lawyer Maksim Znak ([link removed]) and musician Maria Kalesnikava ([link removed]) who are all being held incommunicado. They also include our former colleague Andrei Aliaksandrau, who was previously the Belarus and OSCE programme officer at Index.
Also imprisoned is former blogger Siarhei Tsikhanouski who announced his intention to stand in the 2020 elections against Lukashenka but was arrested two days later. In the event, his wife Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya stood against the incumbent. The regime claimed she won just 8.8% of the vote.
In an Index exclusive, the country’s would-be president has written an article for us on the country’s political prisoners. Sviatlana has not heard from her husband since 9 March 2023. She writes ([link removed]) , “For my son and daughter, sending letters, postcards and drawing pictures to their father was keeping us morally afloat. They constantly wrote to him but never received any answer.”
Despite many families not receiving answers from their jailed loved ones in Belarus, they are not forgotten.
On Monday 5 August, Index hosted an evening of film and activism in partnership with St John’s Waterloo and Roast Beef Productions, joining a room full of friends and colleagues passionate about free expression, human rights and democracy to mark the fourth anniversary of Lukashenka’s fraudulent elections.
The event’s organiser Index development officer Anna Millward said, “In the belly of the old crypt, we stood in solidarity with, and gave voice to, just some of the many political prisoners in Belarus. Together, we watched the powerful and unmissable documentary The Accidental President ([link removed]) (Roast Beef Productions), which charts the presidential campaign of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. As the film ended and the lights stayed dimmed, the audience started to softly sing the resistance song Moment: it was an unexpected, moving moment full of hope. A panel discussion followed exploring everything from following Sviatlana’s campaign behind the scenes through to the chilling reach of transnational repression with PEN Belarus President, Taciana Niadbaj; Belarusian poet, writer and activist Hanna Komar; and Roast Beef Productions’ Mike Lerner and Martin Herring.”
She adds, “Finally, we launched our pilot exhibition Letters from Lukashenka’s Prisoners, giving unjustly detained individuals a voice by collecting, translating, publishing and displaying their letters. The exhibition was designed and curated by Martha Hegarty on behalf of Index, and is inspired by a project of the same name carried out by Index in partnership with Belarus Free Theatre ([link removed]) , Human Rights House Foundation ([link removed]) and Politzek.me ([link removed]) between 2021 and 2023.”
As we mark this dark anniversary of Belarus it is poignant to think about the words of the song sung this past Monday.
“We are Belarusians, we are going in peace. In a bright and sunny way.
Destroy the prison walls! If you want freedom, take it!
The wall will soon collapse, collapse, collapse — And the old world is buried!”
Let us hope that is the case sooner rather than later.
Mark Stimpson
Associate editor
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** Russia, disinformation and two Olympic boxers
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Imane Khelif wins quarter final 66kg women's boxing, Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Photo: Andy Miah/CC BY-NC 2.0
The Olympics have never been short of controversy and so it has transpired in Paris in 2024. This time there has been viral outrage at the success of female boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan. The story is not as clear-cut as many online commentators choose to believe, writes Daisy Ruddock ([link removed]) .
** UK journalists fall victim to
new police tactics
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London’s Metropolitan Police have declared they plan to use pre-emptive arrests more frequently in response to ongoing protests. Credit: Yukiko Matsuoka via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Two UK photo-journalists have recently been arrested while covering an ecological protest and a pro-Palestine demonstration, in the latter case prior to the protest even taking place. The arrests, which come despite the police having been reprimanded for a similar series of ‘unlawful’ arrests of journalists covering protest actions in 2022, have raised fresh concerns over heavy-handed police tactics targeting the press. Read the background here ([link removed]) .
** Undercover freedom fund
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Human rights activists Andrej Strizhak (right) and Andrey Tkachov have been forced to move to Vilnius in Lithuania to run the Belarus Solidarity Foundation, Bysol
Andrej Strizhak, a human rights activist and Belarus exile, and Andrey Tkachov, a former male model, fitness trainer and media celebrity turned political activist, use electric scooters to go around the streets of Vilnius’s old town. The pair are founders of the Belarus Solidarity Foundation, Bysol, a humanitarian organisation which gives financial help to political prisoners, striking workers and other activists critical of the repressive regime of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Read their unlikely story here ([link removed]) .
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** From the Index archives
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** Tall stories
by Rania Khan
August 2008
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In the wake of the violent protests seen in cities around the UK this week, we look back into the archives at this article from former Tower Hamlets councillor Rania Khan on Islamophobia in the UK ([link removed]) from 2008.
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