8/25/20
MINSK -- Belarusian presidential challenger Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has told European lawmakers that the will of the Belarusian people for democracy "will not be broken" by a brutal crackdown by the authorities in Minsk. "Belarusians have shown over the past two weeks that they will not give up" despite repression, intimidation by physical force, and threats of imprisonment, Tsikhanouskaya told the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on August 25 by video link from Lithuania, where she fled after the election amid reports that she and her family were threatened. Proclaiming that at least six Belarusian protesters have been killed in the crackdown and that dozens have gone missing in police custody, Tsikhanouskaya demanded "respect of our political rights," the freeing of "all political prisoners" in Belarus, and an end to "violence and intimidation" by Belarusian authorities. "Belarus has woken up. We are not the opposition anymore. We are the majority now," Tsikhanouskaya said, declaring that more than 200,000 people took to the streets of Minsk on August 23 for the largest protest there yet. She also reiterated the readiness of her movement to enter into dialogue with authorities in Minsk to resolve the political crisis over the country's disputed August 9 presidential election results.
Tsikhanouskaya also called on "all of the countries of the world" to support the quest of the Belarusian people to achieve a "free and fair" election result, while also respecting "Belarusian sovereignty" and "territorial integrity." "The will of the people will not be broken," she said. "I declare our intention to achieve free and fair elections through dialogue." Tsikhanouskaya also rejected claims by the Belarusian authorities that protesters had been violent during more than two weeks of demonstrations against President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's officially declared reelection. "A peaceful revolution has taken place," she said, stressing that demonstrations across the country were neither anti-Russian nor anti-European Union. "It is a democratic revolution -- the striving of the people to freely and fairly elect" their own leaders for their own destiny, she told European lawmakers. Tsikhanouskaya's speech came as authorities in Belarus are stepping up arrests and prosecutions of prominent members of her Coordination Council and other protest organizers. Lukashenka has ordered the Belarusian military into full combat readiness, raising the prospect that the army may unleash a much-feared bloody crackdown to suppress the unprecedented wave of street protests across the country.