Lukashenka has Repressed More than 500,000 Belarusians, Not just the 7000 Convicted in Courts Since 2020 and the More than 1,000 Behind Bars Now, BelPol Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 2 – Most observers of the Belarusian dictatorship focus on the 7,000 plus people who have been convicted by Lukashenka’s courts since 2020 or even the lesser number of those who remain behind bars after many have served their sentences or been released as Minsk tries to present itself as liberalizing and thus deserving of better treatment.

            But the reality is very different, according to BelPol, the organization of former staff members of the Belarusian force structures who left their jobs in 2020 in reaction to the falsification of the presidential elections in that year (belpol.pro/en/ob-istinnom-masshtabe-repressij-v-belarusi/).

            In a new report, they say that “the true scale of repressions in Belarus” includes not only those behind bars that many point to but more than 500,000 Belarusians in various categories who one way or another have suffered and continue to suffer from repressions because of Lukashenka’s actions.

            BelPol points out that any honest analysis of the Soviet period in Belarus recognizes that the number of people convicted by courts was many orders of magnitude smaller than the number of victims of that system and argues that something very similar is true today as far as the relative size of those convicted by courts and those who have been repressed.

            In its report, BelPol lists the following categories and their numbers of people whom it believes must be counted as repressed in Lukashenka’s Belarus or at risk of repression even if they have fled the country because of problems with their status and their inability to count on the legal system to defend their rights:

·       Former political prisoners who are subject to preventive oversight or preventive surveillance and restricted in their ability to get work;

·       Those pardoned not by the courts, a miniscule number, but only by oral statements that those who have been given such “gifts” have no way to cite or protect themselves, including getting new passports if they have fled abroad;

·       The 100,000 Belarusians included in Lukashenka’s “disorderly persons” data base on the basis of their involvement in political protests and are also subject to restrictions of their rights;

·       The several hundred thousand who signed petitions for opposition candidates in the 2020 elections and have seen their rights restricted;

·       And the several hundred thousand more who have fled abroad but have not yet been able to secure asylum or acquire a new citizenship, thus leaving them at risk of mistreatment by the Lukashenka regime.  

On the basis of this enumeration, BelPol says that “the total number of illegally repressed (and currently repressed) citizens of Belarus for political reasons is at least 500,000, a figure that can increase many times over when their close relatives, who are also affected, are taken into account.”

Obviously, the organization continues, “the release of political prisoners is undoubtedly the most important humanitarian task of the Belarusian opposition and the progressive international community.” But regardless of the successes they may have in doing so, they must not forget these other and far more numerous victims of Lukashenka’s repressive regime. 

To think otherwise is to fall victim to Lukashenka's propaganda and leave hundreds of thousands of his victims without defense.