Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship

(Disclaimer: Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.)

By Dagen Kipling

The 2020 Presidential election is on the horizon in the U.S.; a time for Americans to exercise their democratic right to vote. On the other side of the world, another democratic Presidential election was held in Belarus. Unlike America, this election was not decided by the citizens of Belarus. On Aug. 9 incumbent Alexender Lukashenko announced the President. Instead, it was decided by the president himself.

Alexander Lukashenko was running for an unprecedented sixth consecutive presidential term. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a Belarusian human rights activist, was thought to be the favorite heading into the election. Initially, Sviatlana’s husband, Sergei Tikhanovsky, was a candidate in the 2020 election until his mysterious arrest on May 29, 2020. After his incarceration, Sviatlana took over his campaign and declared her intention to run for President in his absence.

The country of Belarus had prepared to hear the victory of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya announced Aug. 9. However, Alexander Lukashenko had shockingly secured a sixth term as President. While Lukashenko had supposedly captured 80.23% of the national votes, Tsikhanouskaya allegedly only received 9% of the tally. Tsikhanouskaya claims to have actually received 60-70% of the votes. 

News of Lukashenko’s re-election spread rapidly as the Belarusian people took to the streets to stand up against the unjust election process. A sea of Belarusians dawned in red and white (a symbol of opposition to the President) blanketed the streets and remained peaceful throughout the process. Lukashenko called the police down to the front lines to break up peaceful gatherings in an effort to silence the masses. Violence ensued from the police upon arrival, attacking protestors with baton strikes, stun grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets. While the police were harming innocent Belarusian protestors, special forces were busy rounding up innocent civilians, throwing them in vans, and taking them to police stations.l

Violence ensued from the police upon arrival, attacking protestors with baton strikes, stun grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets.

(Reuters)

Today marks four weeks since the start of the protests. Over this past weekend, it was reported that 100,000 Belarussians protested in Minsk — 633 protestors were detained during the demonstrations. 

To get an in-depth look at what is happening in Belarus, I had the opportunity to sit down with two Belarusian natives, Andrei and Maryia. Both currently reside in the U.S., but Andrei was in the city Borisov — located an hour away from the capital city, Minsk — at the time of Lukashenko’s election. 

I asked Andrei what he expected to happen after the news that Lukashenko was miraculously re-elected after what should have been a landslide defeat to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. 

“I expected that there would be protests, with people going to the streets, but I did not expect that it would be this aggressive. The police are hurting innocent people.” Andrei said.

Maryia recounted a specific example of this abuse about one of her acquaintances who was apprehended by police while walking over to his girlfriend’s house. The twenty-four-year-old man passed by the peaceful demonstrations on his way, but never made it. The police had captured him.  Upon arriving at the jail, he was put in a cell built for five occupants, yet forty people were squished inside of it. Her acquaintance was born with a heart defect that became exacerbated by the tight space and lack of oxygen. While standing in the cell, he passed out. He never regained consciousness and was later pronounced dead. She explained that he did not even vote in the recent elections.

Foreign journalists are being removed from the country to prevent the spread of information. Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, has offered to send military support to Lukashenko to stifle the protests, and the Belarusian opposition leader has been ‘snatched’ off the streets of Minsk. Lukashenko is holding nothing back to bring an end to the vocal citizens denouncing his rigged elections. 

In an interview with Belarus’s state-run TV news agency, Belta, President Lukashenko attempted to defend his actions of corrupting elections and enforcing police brutality by claiming that he will “not allow the country to be torn apart.”. Videos of anti-Tsikhanouskaya propaganda are also broadcasted on Belta to deter Belarusian support. These broadcasts portray her as a puppet for the E.U. and instill fear that her leadership will lead Belarus to a state that is reflective of Ukraine in 2014. Lukashenko’s attempts to keep his country from being torn apart has resulted in over 6,000 arrests, 200 wounded, 4 deaths, and at least 50 missing citizens. Even though Lukashenko claims to fight for his country’s good, he is taking innocent Belarusian lives in an attempt to regain control.

Maryia explained that the country is not united in which candidate they think is best suited for the job; however, they all agree that it is time for Belarussians to be heard, and for all of the unnecessary violence ordered by President Lukashenko to come to an end.

You can follow Dagen on Twitter @DagenKipling.