23 March 2023
appeals
The undersigned voice our support for the people of Belarus.
For the past three years more than fifty thousand people have been imprisoned for political reasons in Belarus. Europe has not known imprisonment on this scale since the Second World War. As of March 2023, there are more than 1,450 people on the Viasna Human Rights Centres list of Belarusian political prisoners, including the Sakharov Prize and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ales Bialiatski. Courageous people who wanted to change their country for the better and run in the 2020 presidential election Siarhei Tsikhanovsky, Viktar Babaryka, Maria Kalesnikava, Mikola Statkevich, etc were sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison. At least 2,900 more people have been convicted in politically motivated criminal cases. Among them are hundreds of journalists, trade union leaders, teachers, doctors, musicians, workers, students, and even elderly and disabled people are currently imprisoned in Belarus for political reasons.
The moral obligation of the free world is to release the people who fight for freedom and democracy in Belarus.
We appeal to politicians, trade unions, journalists, scientists, athletes, musicians, opinion leaders, and people of good will around the world to support the civil campaign "Free Belarus political prisoners".
We appeal to the leaders of the European Union, the United States, Great Britain and other countries to make immediate efforts to release all political prisoners in Belarus without exception. We demand exhaustive measures be taken to ensure the safety of the hostages and, if necessary, arrange for their evacuation to safe countries.
If diplomatic instruments are insufficient to release prisoners of consequence, human rights activists, and trade union leaders, we support the calls of the Belarus Democratic Forum to issue a collective ultimatum to Alexander Lukashenko. If he refuses to release all political prisoners without exception, the EU member states should take extreme measures and block all cargo transit by rail from Belarus. The commercial interests of certain individuals cannot be compared with human obligation to save the lives of political hostages in Belarus. The civilized world cannot calmly observe the atrocities of the regime and sufferings of the people in Belarus.
In Nicaragua, 222 political prisoners were released in February, and in March about 22,000 protesters were pardoned in Iran. It became possible because of the principal stance of the international community.
We demand that Alexander Lukashenko immediately stop the terror in Belarus and release of political prisoners without preconditions. We call on him to show human mercy, compassion and responsibility in order to avoid catastrophic consequences.
