Acting publicly against the allmighty KGB relict Alexander Lukashenko was never easy. The authocratic hardliner and his devoted staff are ruling the Northeastern country with an iron fist.
One of the last orders Lukashenko gave out was barring local journalists and opposition figures from leaving the country. Besides dubious pending lawsuits some members of the opposition were accused for hooliganism - a more than doubtful charge against those operating under the premises of nonviolent resistance.
The announcement that the Belarusian president might consider the release of two prominent opposition figures, among them the former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, has to be taken with more than a grain of salt. Sannikov, who was arrested in December 2010 after a peaceful anti-regime protest in Minsk and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment on charges of organizing mass disturbances, is still suffering tightened conditions like getting tortured, isolated from other prisoners or neglected needed medical care.
The regime in Minsk tries not only to break the political but also the personal will of its' critics. In the case of Siargey Kavalenka the whole dimension of the post-stalinist apparatus in Belarus can be discovered. Kavalenka was sentenced to three years after demonstrating and hanging the Belarusian white-red-white independence flag on top of the main New Year's tree in Vitebsk. Since three and a half months Kavalenka is protesting against his charge in form of a hunger strike. The result was that the regime ordered to move him to the psychiatric ward of the penal colony. Being force-fed and tied to bed Siargey Kavalenka's health status has become increasingly critical.
It is still very difficult or even impossible for the political prisoners' closest relatives to visit them in jail. Another measure of mounting the pressure on critical individuals demanding the end of the authoritarian rulership.
And the political or economical pressure the EU is putting on Minsk? All efforts seem a bit desperate regarding Lukashenko's obstinate bearing towards the West. Brussels recalled end of february his envoys after Minsk requested the EU and Polish ambassadors to leave the country. Lukashenko's reaction is besides a 'case by case' treatment of the envoys' possible return stubbornly defending his hardliner policy by accusing the European Union of blackmailing Belarus.
As cryptic and kafkaesque the whole situation in the former Sovjet republic might appear, for those Belarusians striving for freedom and democracy and for their relatives it is both tragic and dramatic facing drastic consequences for utilizing freedom of expression.
And it is shameful for every European who is defining his supranationality not only in-between the borders of the Union still to witness fellows being endangered while demanding the same basic rights the democratic nations are granting their inhabitants.
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