Belarus Brutal Repression Continues Post Presidential Election — Global Issues

by Ed HoltMonday, February 10, 2025Inter Press Service

However having secured an inevitable additional time period in workplace, human rights teams and Belarussians who’ve survived persecution below his regime say they see no indicators he’s getting ready to loosen his iron grip on the state.

“If we have now realized something from the final 4 years, it’s that repression in Belarus shouldn’t be lessening, even supposing Lukashenko has all the pieces below his energy. There aren’t any protests, folks have been compelled into exile, there aren’t any authorized methods for rights teams to do their work, but the repression continues,” Anastasiia Kruope, Assistant Researcher, Europe and Central Asia, at Human Rights Watch (HRW), advised IPS.

In August 2020, a whole bunch of hundreds of individuals took to the streets in Belarus to protest towards what they noticed because the rigged results of an election which had simply returned Lukashenko, who has dominated the nation since 1994, to energy.

Safety forces launched a violent crackdown on these concerned. Over the subsequent six months, tens of hundreds have been detained and a minimum of 11 folks have been killed.

Though the protests ultimately stopped, repression has continued, with any type of dissent severely punished. There have been mass arrests, imprisonment, and torture for these deemed to be opposing the regime, whereas secret police and get together loyalists have been put in in establishments as official ideological gatekeepers to make sure folks toe the federal government line.

Unbiased media has been muzzled—nearly 400 journalists have been arrested within the final 4 years—and far of the NGO sector has been successfully shuttered by repressive laws on overseas funding and authorities’ misuse of anti-terror and anti-extremism legal guidelines. The closures of those teams have impacted all the pieces from human rights work to very important healthcare companies.

However whereas the broader worldwide group largely sees Belarus as a pariah state—Lukashenko has the express political assist of Moscow, and China maintains shut ties with the nation—and the West has imposed sanctions on people in Belarus, there was no let-up in authorities efforts to convey the inhabitants to heel.

Nonetheless, the slew of releases of political prisoners, which started final summer season and went proper as much as the elections, had prompted hypothesis that Lukashenko could also be trying to restore relations with the West, particularly because the battle in Ukraine—Lukashenko has backed Russia and allowed Moscow to make use of Belarus to launch assaults on Ukraine—seems to be heading in the direction of some form of, a minimum of momentary, finish, and he appears to be like to extract his nation from ever-increasing dependence on Moscow.

However individuals who reside in Belarus, and a few who’ve fled into exile, advised IPS they aren’t anticipating the pervasive local weather of worry that Lukashenko has unfold to cement his management within the nation to carry any time quickly.

“Normally the human rights scenario in Belarus after elections turns into calmer, with much less arrests. Nevertheless it would not look that approach this time. We’re nonetheless getting details about repressions,” Natallia Satsunkevich, a human rights defender with the Belarussian NGO Viasna, advised IPS.

She stated Lukashenko might even resolve to accentuate his crackdown on opponents of his regime.

“In fact , the repressive machine is big and works quick. Police are nonetheless searching for and arresting those who participated in protests in 2020,” Satsunkevich stated.

Others who’ve suffered below Lukashenko agree.

“Any expectations that the repression will ease are simply wishful considering,” Lidziya Tarasenka, co-founder of The Belarussian Medical Solidarity Basis (Bymedsol), which operates exterior Belarus serving to medical doctors who’ve left the nation, advised IPS.

Tarasenka, who labored in healthcare within the capital, Minsk, earlier than fleeing the nation after the 2020 protests, stated she noticed no signal that repression in Belarus was easing off.

“Initially, the variety of political prisoners which were launched is lower than the variety of these newly imprisoned. The federal government has realized their classes and is making an attempt to make new prosecutions as unnoticeable as attainable, however the course of is in full swing. Secondly, there’s a entire military of various police/secret companies and so forth, their quantity is rising and so they should be doing one thing. can’t be stopped that simply,” she stated.

Some Belarussians who spoke to IPS gave some perception into the regime’s persecutions.

Sviatlana (NOT REAL NAME) fled Belarus final yr after she feared she was about to be arrested. Her work in healthcare had introduced her into contact with former political prisoners, a few of whom had been tortured in jail, and he or she had given some cash for therapy to assist their restoration. She managed to flee, however she fears now that her former colleagues shall be focused by the safety companies merely for having labored along with her.

“I’m anticipating there shall be repressions towards the employees and administration at my work now,” she advised IPS.

Kruope added that whereas Belarussians not actively opposing the regime might attempt to undertake a “maintain your head down and don’t make any hassle” strategy to making sure they keep away from any repressions, even that carried no ensures.

“One factor folks should be careful for is that you simply by no means know what may abruptly turn out to be an issue. You will have, up to now, preferred a social media remark or adopted somebody, not even for his or her political beliefs, or just adopted a media outlet that’s then declared a terrorist group or one thing, and now end up in hassle. It’s tough to know what exercise may abruptly turn out to be a felony offense,” she stated.

Thus far, it’s unclear what Lukashenko could also be planning as he begins his newest time period in workplace. However the preliminary indicators counsel he’s not planning any form of rapprochement with the West within the speedy future.

In a press convention instantly after his election win and as western leaders threatened extra sanctions and dismissed the elections as a “sham,” he pointedly stated, “I don’t give a rattling in regards to the West.”

Nonetheless, even when repressions proceed, rights defenders haven’t given up hope that issues will enhance sooner or later.

“I personally consider that someday Belarussians will reside in a free and democratic nation,” stated Satsunkevich.
IPS UN Bureau Report

Observe @IPSNewsUNBureauFollow IPS Information UN Bureau on Instagram

© Inter Press Service (2025) — All Rights ReservedOriginal supply: Inter Press Service

The place subsequent?

Hyperlink to this web page out of your web site/weblog

Add the next HTML code to your web page:

<p><a href=”https://www.globalissues.org/information/2025/02/10/39041″>Belarus Brutal Repression Continues Submit Presidential Election</a>, <cite>Inter Press Service</cite>, Monday, February 10, 2025 (posted by World Points)</p>

… to supply this:

Belarus Brutal Repression Continues Submit Presidential Election, Inter Press Service, Monday, February 10, 2025 (posted by World Points)