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Welcoming Belarusians into their homes, documenting police violence and establishing solidarity movements: Ukrainian civil society reacted temporarily to occasions in Belarus.
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“When I was in grade 11, I knew I didn’t have a long career in Belarus,” says Anastasia Dykova.
Originally from Minsk, Dykova speaks of the Ukrainian house, illuminated with the red and white of the unofficial Belarusian flag, in the center of Kiev.
“I didn’t have freedom of speech, my vote didn’t count at all in the election, so I couldn’t live there,” he continued.”There has been no replenishment in the country for 26 years.And that’s why we chose 26.” August for our action, in defence of human rights and to end the violence in Belarus.”
Participants in the foreign initiative #BelarusWatch organized the smooth projection in solidarity with protesters in Belarus; similar occasions took place in several Ukrainian cities, as well as in 15 countries around the world.Anastasia Dykova helped organize the event abroad in Kiev (30 years, she has lived in Ukraine for thirteen years) and her speech is followed by Ukrainian human rights defenders, activists and parliamentarians.Speaking to a small crowd on 26 August, they propose how the Ukrainian government reacts to occasions in Belarus.
When protests erupted in Belarus against the effects of false elections and police violence last month, Ukrainian civic activists reacted temporarily: they welcomed others leaving the country for fear of persecution, organized solidarity movements, and helped document cases of state violence., on the other hand, first played a waiting game, before choosing not to recognize the effects.
Belarusian rights defender and activist Andrej Stryzhak entered Ukraine in early July and, in his country, helped discover BYCOVID-19, an initiative to increase the budget and resources for doctors fighting the coronavirus outbreak and believes it is not up to him to remain in the country.
“One of the reasons the protests are Loukachenka’s attitude towards the coronavirus,” Stryzhak tells me.”Everyone enjoys their own lives. And when they tell you that coronavirus is a bunch of crap, that if you get sick, then you take care of yourself.”yourself driving tractors and feeding goats, other people have begun to think that something is really wrong.What would I then do to “cancel” the coronavirus when there was some other outbreak?
“I worked on the [BYCOVID-19] campaign, I was active in many other areas.And other people who knew the scenario told me that my call also came here in some offices, and that I would be older if when several resources informed me, I knew I had to move abroad, especially since I had a coronavirus and was still recovering.
Stryzhak now has another explanation as to why not return to Belarus: in August, he joined the Belarusian Opposition Coordination Council, which temporarily attacked through the country’s Investigative Committee on accusations of attempted coup.Council members are being questioned as witnesses.
“Witnessing is the ultimate harmful prestige of Belarusian law,” Stryzhak continues.”You have no right to refuse to testify. In that sense, it’s less difficult to be a suspect, because you can just say, “We’ll talk in court.”The Belarusian state has left legality behind. There has still been an investigation into the beatings of protesters, however, there are a dozen investigations into violence against police officers.”
Stryzhak does not know when he will return to Belarus, says he will end up in Ukraine, can make some of his paintings remotely and has friends here.As a volunteer, Andrej has collected donations for fighting doctors and citizens of Ukraine’s frontline territories.He believes that other Belarusians may find it much harder to locate their position in Ukraine.
On 28 August, Ukraine closed its borders to foreign citizens due to the coronavirus outbreak and only passengers in transit, timely relatives and people with paintings or apartment rentals can enter the country.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the government would make an exception for Belarusian citizens: the head of Ukraine’s border service would possibly allow them in.On 27 August, Tut.by reported that several Belarusians had not received permission to enter Ukraine.
Belarusian and Ukrainian activists called on the Ukrainian government to keep the border open to Belarusians.Andrej Stryzhak explains that Belarusians want visas for Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, but only a passport is needed for foreigners to enter Ukraine.It is not known how many other people have left the country so far.
Vostok SOS, a Ukrainian civic initiative introduced in 2014 to help those affected by the war, has begun helping Belarusians who have gone to Ukraine.In the past, the organization collects data on Ukrainian citizens willing to help Belarusians.The organization’s executive director, Oleksandra Dvoretska, cites examples of others who have come to Ukraine.
“There are families of other people who run [Belarusian] Telegram channels who are now under pressure,” says Dvoretska. “We met one of those families at Borispil airport and then we took them to an apartment where they have been living lately. There are laws.” Law enforcement officials who refused to obey orders and resigned did not need to participate in the violence, and those other people face a double risk: First, they can testify that there were illegal orders to use the utmost cruelty against protesters. they supported the protests and took risks ”.
“There are law enforcement officials who have refused to obey orders and have resignedArrayArrayArray.These other people face a double risk: first, they can testify that there were illegal orders to use maximum cruelty against protesters.Second, they supported the protests.”
Pavlo Kaliuk, a civic activist and co-founder of a neighborhood initiative in Kiev’s historic Podil district, called on city citizens to welcome others from Belarus.Kalyuk tells me that Belarusians are leaving the country for reasons other than protests.
“There are entrepreneurs, computer scientists for whom Internet blockades have become a vital explanation for why to leave the country.I didn’t tell you the political explanation for your departure.People just don’t feel any other explanation why,” he says.
About 20 other people responded to Kalyuk’s Facebook request, and I spoke to one of them, Anastasia Bondarenko, who rents a one-bedroom apartment in the city.Still, he agreed to house two other people in his apartment.”We help everyone, another Maidan, ” says Bondarenko.” I lived in Kharkiv at the time.We had come to Kiev, we had stayed with a woman, I didn’t even know her.It was a two bedroom apartment, and there were 8 of us.
Natalia Kurchenko, director of an arts agency, also came forward to help Belarusians coming to Kiev. Born in Ukraine, Natalia lived in Russia until 2014 and moved to Ukraine with her Russian passport. Now you watch live broadcasts from Minsk and other cities, and think about your country of citizenship.
“Belarus lives in the same kind of authoritarian and despotic regime as Russia,” he says.”We hate Lukachenka’s regime as fiercely as we hate Putin’s regime.I have friends from Belarus and I know for them what is going on internally” the country.Including the point of discontent: how this beautiful symbol [of Belarus], with its own streets, does not make life easier.I can’t stand this terrible Soviet atmosphere.”
According to Oleksandra Dvoretska, there will be no more than a few hundred people forcibly displaced from Belarus who will come to Ukraine, but even those crossing the Ukrainian border may have problems, says Andrej Stryzhak.
First, he says, his arrival coincides with the “high season” in the rental market, when other people return on vacation, students travel for the start of the semesters and it is difficult to find apartments.Second, Belarusians will want legal assistance to navigate the complexities of Ukrainian migration law and Ukrainian document-obtaining procedures.Third, families will have to send their children to school.At the central and local levels, the Ukrainian government has not yet provided assistance to Belarusian migrants.
During the 2014 revolution, Maria Nazarova volunteered at maidan Medical Service; He then took tactical medicine classes, became concerned about physical care reform in the Ukrainian armed forces, and led an initiative to install defibrillators at Kiev metro stations.Police began emerging the day after the election, Nazarova and another former Maidan medical service volunteer, Olha Khudetska, published their first aid recommendation for Belarusian protesters: how to organize a cash hospital, document injuries and treat injuries.
“Belarusian security forces use other flash and fuel grenades,” Nazarova says.”We believe they cause more damage in the event of an explosion, but the powder component is the maximum, probably the same [as in Ukraine].number of car injuries caused by security forces.In Belarus, police especially direct cars into crowds of protesters, beating other people and causing very serious injuries.”
Oleksandra Matviychuk, director of the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties, focused on another facet of mass violence in Belarus: she is helping to document the crimes of the Lukachenka regime.
“We collect photos and videos that we have on the Internet,” he tells me.”We know they will die after a while. But there are volunteers who have responded to #BelarusWatch initiative and who are creating a database.We will give it to the human rights organizations in Belarus, which will have to investigate the crimes committed in Belarus.”
Matviychuk believes that these documents will also help foreign courts and law enforcement: “Anything that happens in Belarus will have to be legally assessed: stateless detention, torture, violent disappearances, disproportionate use of force,” he says.International organizations have a variety of special rapporteurs or mechanisms, whose powers control investigations of these facts.”
The Centre for Civil Liberties is looking for volunteers who can help collect data on crimes imaginable in Belarus; lately, the initiative is limited to fundamental descriptions of images and videos.For example, if a photo shows a policeman hitting a doctor, Ukraine Rights Defenders attach the description to the symbol, but their Belarusian colleagues will find out who shows the video accurately.
Oleksiy Haran, director of the Foundation for Democratic Initiatives and professor of political science at Kyiv Mohila Academy, follows Belarusian protests as a citizen and sees some common ground between the Ukrainian revolution and the level of protests in Belarus.
“The national flag is being rehabilitated lately in Belarusian society,” Haran says.”Here is a sure similarity to Ukraine: before 1988, Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag was not recognized.But since 1989, all democratic demonstrations have taken a position.”under it, it has been legitimized. Now other people are protecting Ukraine’s independence under this flag.The same goes for the white-red-white flag of Belarus: it becomes a symbol of freedom.For me, it is transparent that this flag will reposition the flag of Belarus, which is necessarily Soviet ».
Haran, citing Maidan’s experience, claims that Belarus’s unscented protest is not a source of fear for its success. He said that EuroMaidan also lacked a single leader. He also points out that the protests in Ukraine in 2014 were not anti-Russian from the start. “Before 2014, NATO aides in Ukraine were a minority. Now they are the majority. Right now, in Belarus, many other people in a union with Russia, however, much will count on Russia’s reaction. If Russia chooses help Lukachenka directly, he will start to lose.
There has not yet been a vote on Ukrainian society for protests in Belarus, however, it is transparent that there are other people than the Belarusian authorities. In 2019, sociological organization Rating conducted a survey that found that, for respondents, Alyaksandr Lukashenka was the top popular leader: 66% of respondents see it definitively and 15% negatively; according to the same ballotArray Angela Merkel were given 60% and 17%, Andrzej Duda – 48% and 9%.
“The fact that Lukachenka took first place is the result of a crusade organized to convince the company through the pro-government television channels of Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yanukovych, and now Medvedchuk’s owned television channels,” Haran says, referring to Viktor Medvedchuk.head of the political council of the pro-Russian opposition platform – lifetime party.
“These TELEVISION stations have said that what other people want is stability, and the Maidans are bad,” Haran continues.”On the outside, Belarus seemed stable. Evidently, experts, political scientists have said that it is autarchy, that the country survives from Russian subsidies, that money is obtained through smuggling schemes, on the supposedly non-existent border with Russia.
Standing in front of the Ukrainian House on 26 August, Kira Rudyk, leader of the Voice political party, covers his own with the white, red and white Belarusian flag.On 10 August, Rudyk’s party asked its colleagues in the Ukrainian parliament not in its draft resolution, the party also called on Loukachenka to end violence against protesters, but MEPs have not yet voted for the resolution. Dmytro Razumov, president of the Ukrainian parliament, said parliament representatives teams first approve the wording.
But the Ukrainian parliament has another opinion. On the same day, Yevhen Shevchenko, a member of the Servant of the People’s parliament, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s party, congratulated Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka on his victory in the presidential election.”I haven’t seen any single Belarusians who say they’re opposed to Lukachenka, ” said Shevchenko.
Initially, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted sparingly to the elections.On 15 August, the ministry issued a saying that “the official effects of presidential elections in the Republic of Belarus do not motivate trust in Belarusian society.”The ministry also expressed the hope that the release of at least some of the protesters will become the beginning of a discussion between the government and civil society.
“Ukraine refrained from mentioning forgeries in elections, called on Belarusian society to commit itself and did not even call for the prompt release of thousands of detained protesters”
The position of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been criticized by experts, Serhiy Sidorenko, editor-in-chief of the European Truth media.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is closer to the position of the official Minisk than to the foreign community,” he wrote.”In this document, Ukraine refrained from any mention of forgery during the elections, called on Belarusian society for a compromise and did not even call for the immediate release of thousands of detained protesters, but instead expressed satisfaction that Loukachenka had released some detainees.”
On 27 August, it became clear that Kiev had chosen not to recognize Lukachenka as President-elect of Belarus, joining the European Union that the electoral procedure did not conform to foreign rules.Foreign Ministry Dmytro Kuleba said all official contacts with Belarus had been suspended.
When writing for the Zmina human rights portal, Oleksandra Dvoretska believes that the Ukrainian state’s position on Belarus is more active and needs the Ukrainian Ministry of Education to offer programs for Belarusian academics who cannot complete their studies at home due to their participation in Protests: Poland has already proposed a similar program.Dvoretska also insists that Belarusian academics be able to examine in Ukrainian schools, and calls on Ukrainian border facilities and immigration facilities not to prevent Belarusians from entering the country.
So far, the burden of helping Belarusian protesters lies with civil society and Ukrainian activists: neither the country’s central government nor the government has proposed initiatives.
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