Recognize the occupation of Belarus
The second day of the Forum of Democratic Forces of Belarus Review of discussions of the legal status of citizens of the republic in emigration and the facts of discrimination against Belarusians abroad.
Head of the Crisis Center for Belarusians in Lvov Alexey Frantskevich said that after the brutal suppression of protests in the second half of 2020, a lot of Belarusians left for Ukraine. However, with the acceleration of the full-scale invasion of the army of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, political emigrants from Belarus began to take seriously such problems as blocking bank cards. In addition, they have become associated with a country that supports aggression. Now, as usual Frantskevich, they are gradually normalizing. In addition, an open information center, one of the main tasks, which began to explain to Ukrainians the differences between “Lukashists” and Belarusians. On the Ukrainian side, there is an understanding of the problems and a desire to cooperate with free Belarusians. Representative of Ukraine Ruslan Rokhov, who was present at the Forum, confirmed that work is underway in these areas, in particular, that the pause has been lifted in the form of an exception for temporary and permanent residence of Belarusian residents in Ukraine.
Lyubov Shibarshina, head of the Nash Dom non-governmental organization in Poland, also said that here, too, with the outbreak of Russia’s war against Ukraine, Belarusians felt the attention of the UN. The global reason, according to Shibarshina, is in Belarus, that for a year and a half since August 2020, explanatory work with American American countries has not been carried out enough so that the Lukashenka regime and citizens are shared in the world.
A civil activist arises: in Poland there are many cases when Belarusian refugees are issued a residence permit for only three months, although it would be possible for two years. Moreover, this applies even to those young people who are concerned about returning to their homeland, they are threatened with being drafted into the Belarusian army. Another problem is that there is no legal education, and as a result, people simply do not know where to go with complaints in the case of an international agenda.
“Demanding a completely different level of support from the US and European countries”
Lively disputes unfolded on this issue, it is necessary to achieve international recognition of Belarus as an occupied country. For example, former diplomat Valery Tsepkala briefly spoke out against such a formula, since, in his opinion, it would play into the hands of Lukashenka. “He will say: “I am occupied, my hut is on the edge, I am not responsible for anything,” Tsepkalo suggested. Instead, according to one of the initiators of the convening of the Forum, Lukashenka should be in the usurpation of power after 2020 and in a coup d’état.
Political scientist Dmitry Bolkunetson the contrary, that Belarus has been occupied by Russia since 1996, when Russia held back the usurpation of power by Alexander Lukashenko. And three presidents of Russia met with him, ordering him legitimacy.
The report of the head of the Center for the initiative “Our Home” Olga Karach was called “Away from the Russian world.” “We all understand that the aggression against our neighbors is solely the fault of Lukashenka,” she began. And in detail, that he refuses to take the blame for the action of the right-wing regime in Belarus, urging the audience to distance themselves as much as possible from Lukashenka and his entourage. “If Belarus is not recognized as occupied, then according to all legal norms, we are a co-aggressor,” she said.
“Belarus is now being replaced by the entire civilized world as a co-aggressor country”
The fact that the war unleashed by Russia put Ukraine in first place on the world agenda, and Belarus almost lost attention from the position of a world power, the capture of many participants in the Forum. However, on May 12, the European Union released a statement stating, in part, that it is “the strongest condemnation of Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine, as well as the complicity of the Belarusian regime in this aggression directed towards its territory and observed, which is a flagrant violation of the UN Charter “. and international law, including the resolution Further in the expected outcome: “At the same time, it is clear that the Belarusian people do not want to be compared with this random war of aggression and the monstrous cases committed in Ukraine.”
The correspondent of the Voice of America Russian Service advised Dmitry Bolkunets to express his opinion, has Belarus fallen out of Europe’s media attention and requires Western politicians?
The expert accepted that the war in Ukraine blocks information flows and this is a completely natural process. “There is nothing to be surprised here, because the protests in Belarus consume the agenda and only partially Lukashenka’s actions touched the foreign policy agenda, in particular the seizure of the collected and arrest crisis last summer. The war in Ukraine has eclipsed everything and Belarus has now turned into the whole civilized world, as a co-aggressor country that makes Georgia its task to attack a neighboring independent sovereign state,” Dmitry Bolkunets returned.
In his opinion, it is necessary to take into account that Lukashenka and his regime are now a real dependence on income, because there is a possibility that the war could go beyond the borders of Ukraine. “And, unfortunately, there are disturbing notes and propaganda propaganda, which claims that there is a possibility of a collision with NATO countries,” the Voice of America interlocutor fears. And since such a threat exists, neighboring countries must respond to the challenges that arise from Belarus: And a completely different story, when Lukashenka took place in order to bomb neighboring states, including NATO countries. I don’t see such an option that Putin clearly wants to get out of the war beyond the borders of Ukraine.”
And he recalls: “The second place Belarus is on the world agenda is transit issues. Lukashenka is currently earning on the transit of all kinds of cargo, which entails the likelihood of an early arrival. And if Europe wants to resolve the political crisis in Belarus, then, of course, it needs maximum interaction with all the initiatives of the democratic forces of Belarus, which in one way or another allow international and European countries to change the political situation in the country.”
“The leadership of Ukraine says: we understand that Belarusians are Kalinouski’s battalion”
Before the end of the Forum, its participants adopted a resolution containing the following lines: “The sovereignty of Ukraine, the territorial territory of Ukraine and its inviolability within internationally recognized borders is an indisputable fact.” The consolidated opinion of the Forum participants is that “the actions of the occupation regime of Lukashenko, aimed at expanding the scope of cooperation with the aggressor country, spreading international activity and global crimes.”
At the end of the meeting of assemblies to foreign states and organizations of the RIAC: “Recognize the occupation of the Republic of Belarus by the Russian Federation and economic, financial, military, informational, political and selected assistance to the Belarusian people, which has the right to revolt against the occupation regime, which accidentally seized and holds power in the country” .
To give a report, which ended in Warsaw, the Forum of Democratic Forces of Belarus, the correspondent of the Russian Service of the Voice of America, answered the representative of Belarus, the Coordinating Council for the Eastern Partnership, Valery Matskevich.
He began by saying that given the fact that up to 250,000 activists and volunteers left Belarus after the 2020 campaign, such conferences and events are held quite often. So, activists of the social movement, the media, and human rights activists were recently held. The anticipated meetings also take place in the office of Svyatlana Tikhanovskaya of Belarus, the People’s Anti-Crisis Administration and those structures that today can be considered the considerations of the opposition forces.
“The fact that in the presence of its representatives there is the rhetoric that is already heard from the most influential structural democratic forces, indicates that we are acting in a coordinated manner, one might say coherently,” Matskevich said. “The result was the sort of rhetoric we’ve seen before. When the country’s leadership already speaks on the air of Ukrainian television that we understand that for us the Belarusians are Kalinovsky’s battalion, they are volunteers who today help Ukrainian emigrants and refugees in Poland and other EU countries. The regime for us is those 600 missiles that were fired towards Belarus at Ukrainian cities.”