Global Forum against Belarusian tyranny

Belarus was high on the agenda of the Global Forum held in Wroclaw.

Two Belarusian - director of the Free Theater Natallia Kaliada and wife of the political prisoner Ales Bialatski Natallia Pinchuk – were speaking at the Forum, attended by the world’s political elite,. First leader of independent Belarus Stanislau Shushkievich and leader of the movement For Freedom Aliaksandar Milinkievich were also invited to the Forum.

The prize of Freedom was awarded on 2 June within the Global Forum held in Wroclaw. Leader of the Belarusian human rights center Viasna Ales Bialatski was one of those who got the prize last year. Soon after the Forum he was attested and sent to prison.

This year the prize was awarded to the US National Endowment for Democracy; to vice-president of the Italian Senate and trustee of the Arab Democracy Foundation Emma Bonino; to former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland and chairperson of the international council of the National Auschwitz Museum Wladyslaw Bartoszewski. Moreover, the award was given to the Tunisian people represented by their President Moncef Marzouki.

An action of solidarity with Ales Bialiatski and other political prisoners was held during the Freedom award ceremony. When their names were read, the audience of several thousand gave a standing applaud.

Belarus was given a special attention during the big gala-even on 2 June. Natallia Kaliada made a speech.

”The Atlantic Council organized the two-day long Global Forum that is taking place in the Polish city of Wroclaw. During these two days, people were arrested in different parts of Belarus: 18 representatives of the Polish minority were detained for manifesting against the introduction of the Russian language in a Polish school in Grodna. Last year Ales Bialiatski received the award in this very hall. A lot has changed since then. Today Bialiatski is in jail, many lawyers who defended political prisoners lost their license, people are arrested, those who were released are kept hostage along side with their families by the regime, two persons were executed. I can go on with this long list.

On 16 December 2011 we, the founders of the Theater, together with other 20 people of art from all over the worlds, including Ai Wei Wei, Tom Stoppard and Vaclav Havel a state of emergency in Belarus. On the same day we received a message from Vaclav Havel: “You have my voice, and we must take urgent measures regarding Belarus.” He passed away next day, and till his last minute he was an example of morality in politics for the Belarusian people. Today I address every person who is strong, healthy and alive, both in Belarus and outside the country to act immediately to change the situation in Belarus. Nobody will do that for us. At the same time, as I know from the experience of Solidarnosc, when the entire world was supporting the struggle for democracy in Poland, I call upon the leaders of democratic countries: you should tell all the tyrants, in Syria, Iran, North Korea, that both the EU and USA are the global powers and that they won’t stop before Europe’s last dictator.”

On behalf of the Belarusian Free Theater I dedicate this award to all independent artists of Belarus. Together we need to make the voice of Belarusian people sound stronger. The Award belongs to all political prisoners of Belarus those who have been released and those still in jails, their families and families of those who were kidnapped and killed in Belarus!

Together we could restore respect to a human life and forget about geopolitical interests and financial profits, when human life is in question,” the director of the Free Theater said.

”Solidarity is what supports Ales in prison. He gets lots of letters. Both the fact that Ales’ name is not forgotten and this ceremony – it demonstrates all this attention centered around Ales,” Ales Bialiatski’s wife Natallia Pinchuk said.

During the opening of the Global Forum, the first President of free Poland Lech Wałęsa, former Prime Minister of Poland Jan Bielecki, mayor of Wroclaw Rafal Dutkiewicz, and president of the Atlantic Council Frederick Kempe spoke about the negative dynamics in the sphere of human rights in Belarus.

Within the Wroclaw Forum, Natallia Kaliada had a long meeting with European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Štefan Füle. During the meeting, the parties discussed all scopes of development of the situation in Belarus. Moreover, the Belarusian representatives met with President and Vice President of the Atlantic Council Frederick Kempe and Daman Wilson, senior fellow of the Atlantic Council Jen Brzezinski, Polish President 1995-2005 Alexander Kwasniewski and the head of the Tunisian Foreign Ministry who urged the Belarusians not to give up. “Tunis’ history shows that changes can happen at any moment,” he said.