Response To Murdering Ales Pushkin: Ways To Stop Lukashenka

It is necessary to impose an embargo on trade with Belarus immediately.

The death in prison of the famous Belarusian artist Ales Pushkin has shocked. Although this is the fifth political prisoner, who dies in a Belarusian prison after 2020. The fifth we know. The names of a huge number of prisoners of conscience are unknown to human rights activists and journalists. Before that, public activist Vitold Ashurak was beaten to death in the colony, blogger Mikalai Klimovich died of a heart attack in the cells, poet Dzmitry Sarokin threw himself (or was it thrown?) out of the Lida police station, Dzmitry Dudoyts, a public activist from Smarhon, committed suicide while serving the term at the place of residence.

Ales Pushkin was killed in prison, there's no doubt about it, no matter what false expertise the chasteners offer to the relatives. The 57-year-old artist, full of vigour before his arrest, who did not suffer from chronic diseases, was constantly subjected to torture and inhuman treatment. In the last letters from the Hrodna prison he reported that he had lost 20 kilograms in a short time, wrote that his kidneys were hurting a lot. Pushkin was taken unconscious to the Hrodna emergency hospital, his heart stopped during the operation ...

One of the best and brightest artists of Belarus, who used to paint icons and decorate churches, was killed. One of the most courageous artists, who openly opposed the dictatorship from the first days of its existence, was killed. A true patriot, who loved his country more than life, was killed.

His death shook Belarusians, spontaneous rallies in memory of Ales Pushkin were held in front of Belarusian embassies abroad: people were bringing flowers, candles, national flags, speaking, demanding justice, punishment of the guilty....

Although what can you demand from Lukashenka's servile diplomats? The only thing the Belarusian democrats can do now is to demand strengthening and toughening of sanctions against the Belarusian regime, up to the closure of borders with the EU, full embargo on trade with Belarus and stopping the transit of goods through the country. These are the measures that the West may well introduce. All that is needed is political will.

The legal grounds for this have already been created. The recent decision to apply Article 33 of the Charter of the International Labour Organization to Belarus means an embargo on trade with Belarus. ILO recommendations are mandatory for the governments of the member-states of the organisation. To date, the ILO has 187 member states.

It is the weakness of the imposed sanctions and their large-scale circumvention that allows Lukashenka's regime to kill people in prisons with almost impunity. The pressure on prisoners of conscience increased precisely when the West stopped imposing sanctions against the regime. No measures have been taken against the dictatorship for more than a year, the EU favourably turns a blind eye to Belarusian smuggling, while the fate of political prisoners has receded from public view and is of little interest to Western bureaucrats. And people are dying, people are being killed. And the relatives of political prisoners, of whom nothing is known for months because of their complete isolation, are afraid that they may never see them alive again.

We can stop the killings in the centre of Europe. To do this, we need to destroy the criminal regime of Lukashenka, using all the levers of pressure against him that are only available. And the world has plenty of these levers.

Natallia Radzina, Charter97.org editor-in-chief

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