Natallia Radzina: Europe Continues Its Hardline Policy Towards Lukashenka

The regime will remain under sanctions.

Natallia Radzina, editor-in-chief of the ‘Charter’97' website, has visited Brussels, where she took part in the conference on Belarusian political prisoners, held in the framework of the extraordinary session of the European Parliament, as well as met with members of the new European Parliament, EU Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius and representatives of the European Action Service.

Natallia Radzina has spoken to Charter97.org about the European policy towards Belarus.

- Natallia, you often speak in the European Parliament and talk about the situation in Belarus. Why is it important to do it?

- This autumn the new European Parliament started working. It was important to meet with the deputies and talk about our country. As it is our duty to raise constantly the issue of the catastrophic situation with human rights and political prisoners in Belarus. Thousands of people are in Belarusian prisons. The number of prisoners of conscience is much higher than the human rights activists know about. Arrests take place all the time. Few people are released, while more and more dissenters are imprisoned almost every day. There are probably up to 10,000 political prisoners in Belarus today.

These people should be shouted about today at all the possible international platforms. However, they are trying to silence us. Even the Belarusians who have emigrated from the country continue to be persecuted: they initiate criminal cases, hold ‘in absentia’ trials, give huge sentences, put pressure on relatives inside the country, confiscate property. They want us to shut up and silently observe the ongoing lawlessness.

Yet we must not give in to this criminal and disgusting blackmail. Who, if not us, will speak up for the people who are being persecuted inside the country today?

- Who did you manage to meet and talk to during the European Parliament session?

- Polish MEP Malgorzata Gosiewska, Head of the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with Belarus, European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius, Austrian MEP and Permanent Rapporteur for Belarus Helmut Brandstätter, Lithuanian MEP Petras Auštrevičius, former Head of the Office of the Prime Minister of Poland, MEP Michał Dworczyk, former Deputy Prime Minister of Romania, MEP Dan Barna, Polish MEPs Mariusz Kaminski and Michal Kobosko, Deputy Head of the Department for Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus of the European External Action Service Julien Bourtembourg, MEP Quaestor Miriam Lexmann, staff of the Office of the President of the European Parliament and advisers to MEPs from other EU countries.

Many of these people know the situation in Belarus well, but there are also completely new people with whom it was important to talk and convince them to work actively on the Belarusian issue.

- A discussion called ‘Belarusian Political Prisoners: The Path to Freedom at the Cost of Freedom’ was held in Brussels as part of the extraordinary session of the European Parliament on November 19. What was discussed at the conference?

- The main topic was the monstrous situation of political prisoners, who are tortured today, kept in total isolation, while their health and will to resist is being destroyed. I spoke about political prisoners who have already died in Belarusian prisons. Just a fortnight ago, political prisoner Dmitry Shletgauer died in a Belarusian prison. He was a Russian citizen of German origin, he was only 22 years old. Before that, well-known artist Ales Pushkin, activist Vitold Ashurak, businessman Aliaksandr Kulinich, civil activist and journalist Ihar Lednik, IT-specialist Vadzim Khrasko, public activist and blogger Mikalai Klimovich, public activist Dzmitry Dudoyts died in prison. Political prisoners were dying not only in prisons, but also during detention: some died in the isolators from the coronovirus, some had heart failure during torture in the police department, like Lida poet Dzmitry Sarokin, and there were also suicides due to persecution by law enforcers.

All these terrible things should be constantly discussed, because the situation in our country has gone into the shadows for objective reasons as a result of the war in Ukraine and the daily victims there. But it does not mean that we, Belarusians, should keep silent and not talk about the crimes committed by the regime in Belarus.

The important thing is that all the conference participants spoke with one voice about the impossibility of lifting sanctions against Lukashenka's regime until every single political prisoner is released in the country. This was the overall message and it was heard by the deputies of the European Parliament.

- So today there is no talk in Brussels about the possibility of easing sanctions against the regime in connection with the recent release of some prisoners of conscience?

- No, all political prisoners must be released. I have met with many MEPs and employees of the European External Action Service, responsible for sanctions, and I was assured that the current steps of the Belarusian authorities are not enough to ease the sanctions.

Lukashenka is releasing 30 people, but at the same time imprisoning 100 new prisoners of conscience. At that, today the people are coming out of prisons with severe chronic diseases, the people whose health has been destroyed in prisons, whom they have tried to break physically and psychologically. The prison term of many of those released has simply ended, and the dictator's ‘mercy’ is that it was not illegally extended, as is the case with a lot of political prisoners today. For example, the ‘European Belarus’ civil campaign activist Palina-Sharenda Panasiuk was recently sentenced to another term for the fourth time and her stay in prison now seems to be endless, although the woman, a mother of two children, is seriously ill, she has pancreatitis and her life is in danger.

And the abuse towards Mikalai Statkevich? Unfortunately, not much is said about him, although he is a really courageous man, a real leader of the Belarusian opposition, who spent more than 12 years in prison during Lukashenka's rule. We know nothing about him for almost two years! Since May 2020, Mikalai has been kept in solitary confinement, and there has been no communication with him for the last years: there have been no letters, no calls, he is forbidden to meet with his lawyer and wife.

Today it is important to speak not only about the most famous political prisoners, but about as many prisoners of conscience as possible. For example, I asked MEPs to pay attention to the fate of anarchist leader Ihar Alinevich. He was sentenced to 20 years, but hardly anything is said about him. The activist Andrei Voynich has cirrhosis of the liver and urgently needs a transplant, but even his case is not the most high-profile. Yauhen Afnahel, one of the ‘European Belarus’ leaders, is losing his eyesight in prison. Hennadz Fiadynich, Vasil Berasneu, Aliaksandr Fiaduta, Volha Mayorava, Halina Darbysh, Uladzimir Hundar and many, many others have big health problems. The worst thing is that we do not know the names of all prisoners of conscience and, therefore, we do not know the scale of the catastrophe.

All this must be constantly brought to the attention of Western politicians. The pressure on the regime should only be increased and in no case weakened. On the contrary, today it is necessary to keep a close eye on the implementation of the sanctions regime, to close the possibilities of circumventing the sanctions and to use new leverages of pressure.

- What are the new leverages against the regime?

- The toughest measures were discussed, up to a complete halt of trade with Lukashenka's regime and the transit of goods through the territory of our country. I am sure that in a very short time after the borders are closed for goods, the regime will backtrack and start releasing people from prisons. It is only necessary to insist on releasing all prisoners of conscience, without exception. To this end, human rights activists should get access to information about all the people detained and convicted in Belarus.

By the way, a very important topic was raised at the conference ‘Belarusian Political Prisoners. The Way to Freedom at the Cost of Freedom' by activist of the independent trade union movement Maksim Pazniakou. He reminded that in 2023, the International Labour Organization adopted a resolution on applying Article 33 of the ILO Constitution in respect of Lukashenka's regime. The resolution calls on all ILO member-states to reconsider any relationship with the Belarusian government: cultural, political, economic, sports - all kinds.

Unfortunately, the governments of the ILO member-states are ignoring the organization’s decision, and today it is necessary to do everything possible to apply to the Belarusian regime Article 33 of the ILO Constitution, which provides for a trade embargo.

- How do European politicians assess the current situation in Belarus?

- Brussels perceives the upcoming so-called ‘elections’ in Belarus in January as a bad show. They do not understand why Lukashenka is holding this show at all, because the dictator will not receive any recognition in the West. Sanctions will not be lifted from him. In order to start negotiations on this topic, it is necessary to fulfill the conditions: to release all political prisoners, to stop political terror and to withdraw from the war with Ukraine.

Is Lukashenka capable of this? I think not, because he is panic-stricken of losing power. However, he will lose it anyway: he doesn't even have the five years, for which he will draw up a mandate for himself. And I am talking here not only about his health condition, which is clearly deteriorating, but also about the futility of confronting the entire civilized world. Neither he nor his friend Putin can pull it out, not only physically but also economically.

Regarding the war in Ukraine, Europe remains principled today, it understands the importance of continued assistance to Ukraine and realizes all the threats that come from Russia. That is why it is so significant that today former Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius has taken such an important position in the EU as Defence Commissioner, and former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has become the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Their countries survived Soviet occupation, and they realize more than anyone else in Europe how dangerous the Putin and Lukashenka regimes are.

There can be no ‘truce’ with them. At the meetings in the European Parliament, I recalled the famous words of Andrei Sakharov: ‘The world cannot trust leaders who do not trust their own people’. Absolutely everyone agreed with this.

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