Andrei Sharenda: Сommunication With Hundreds Of Political Prisoners Has Been Lost

The husband of a prisoner of conscience is crying foul about the situation in Belarusian prisons.

Yesterday, July 11, political prisoner Ales Pushkin, a prominent artist, died in intensive care of Hrodna.

Andrei Sharenda, an activist of the European Belarus Civil Campaign, knew him personally. He told Charter97.org what Ales Pushkin means for Belarus, and what we can do to stop killing heroic political prisoners.

– I met Ales Pushkin in 2007 during the festival in Orsha, which took place on the Krapivensky field in honour of the September 8th Battle [The Battle of Orsha - Ed.]. Ales was one of its founders there. In those years, it was one of the first fests that the Lukashists completely dispersed, not allowing it to take place. I saw with my own eyes that Ales Pushkin went straight to the police cordons there.

For him, Belarus has always been in the first place. It is worth noting that we should be grateful to Ales Pushkin for the fact that he raised our Belarusian self-awareness. It was he who was one of the first to openly celebrate Freedom Day on March 25 and the Day of Belarusian Military Glory on September 8. These dates might have remained regular numbers on the calendar without him.

The life of Ales Pushkin was not easy. He fought in Afghanistan and he was the first Belarusian political prisoner. It’s true, they threw him into jail for the first time. He was not only an artist but also a person who made an invaluable contribution to modern culture and history.

– There has been no news from Mikalai Statkevich for 150 days in a row, and no one knows what is happening with Viktar Babaryka, Ihar Losik and Marya Kalesnikava. Why is the regime hiding political prisoners?

– The cornered regime is raising the stakes. Even already imposed sanctions are working. The economy feels bad, many companies are on the verge of closing. Let’s recall Belaruskali for example. Yes, they are able to partially bypass the sanctions, but with great difficulty, and this requires more and more financial injections. Blackmail is the last Lukashenka’s weapon. So, he is blackmailing the West with people's lives.

The lives of our heroes - political prisoners - including my wife Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, are in danger because Lukashenka will do anything to blackmail the West. He wants to convey the message through the relatives of political prisoners that if there are no concessions, he will torture and kill and hurt people in prisons.

The fact that there is no news about Statkevich, Babaryko and Kalesnikava for many months is just the tip of the iceberg. I have contacts with many relatives of political prisoners and I can say that hundreds of them do not receive news from their imprisoned beloved people for months, and in some cases up to a year. People are afraid to talk about it, so as not to make things worse for their families. Unfortunately, we see that the situation is only getting worse. People are kept for hundreds of days in solitary confinements, punishment cells so you need to act, and not put up with it.

– Do you see any link between the fact that there are no sanctions for more than a year and increased pressure on political prisoners?

– Sure, we see that the countries of the West are hesitating. The war in Ukraine also influenced this. For some reason, the world's politicians think that Lukashenka is not participating in the war and they want to keep him from direct participation anyhow. But Lukashenka has been participating in the war from the very first day! The territory of Belarus was used for strikes against Ukraine, the movement of Russian troops and became a base for an attack on Kyiv.

These are facts, but for some reason, Western politicians ignore them. The main thing for them is that the Belarusian army does not directly participate in the war against Ukraine. But it’s clear that the Belarusian army is so weak that its participation will not affect anything at all. Lukashenka, thanks to the delusions of the world’s politicians, uses the fact that he can put pressure on them through the fate of political prisoners.

Unfortunately, the West obeys this. We see that they really halted the sanction process and there is no control over the implementation of those sanctions that were imposed earlier. Lukashenka continues to trade with Western countries by smuggling methods. Belarusian cigarettes, oil products, and also potassium somehow get to the European black market through other countries. It is simply a mockery of all human values when Europe ignores this and puts up with the situation.

– The media published the full names of those who judged Ales Pushkin. Do you think it makes sense to publish the names of those involved in the repressions? Does it affect the situation?

– Of course, all names, surnames, as well as photos of Lukashenka's minions, whose hands are covered in blood, should be known to the public. We must understand that we are indeed the majority. 95% of the Belarusian people hate Lukashenka.

It’s no secret that making this information available to the public really works. These people become social outcasts. Recall an incident that happened the other day. It became known that one of the high-ranking police officers committed suicide in the city of Kobryn.

All these people with guilty consciences and hands covered in blood must be brought to justice, but it’s impossible now, then before the society at least now.

– What sanctions are needed today to stop the killings of political prisoners?

– Most of the current sanctions were introduced not because Lukashenka hurts and kills political prisoners, but for other reasons. Now, when the deaths of political prisoners have become more frequent and (no matter how terrible it sounds) even normal, we and the world’s politicians must notice it already. They simply encourage further killings by ignoring the problem.

I am a husband of a political prisoner, and I’m crying foul and saying that the lives of our relatives are in danger. It is necessary to stop this by making the Lukashenka regime a complete outcast, by closing all the borders for passengers and trucks. There should be the only exception for Belarusians travelling on humanitarian visas.

It’s also necessary to cut off all cultural and sporting ties with anyone associated with the regime. I call on the authorities of the EU member states to start arresting the state property of Belarus and the oligarchs who are associated with the Lukashenka regime.

All diplomatic relations with the regime must also be terminated. Belarusian diplomats should be expelled, and the property of the embassies should be seized. All these require political will.

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