Solidarity with the women of Belarus fighting for freedom and democracy

Paneuropa on International Women’s Day: Solidarity with the women of Belarus fighting for freedom and democracy.

On this year’s International Women’s Day, the Paneuropa Movement Austria wishes to draw attention to the brave women demonstrating for civil liberty and democracy in Belarus, who are being harassed and imprisoned by the Lukashenko regime for doing so.

Six months ago, Alexander Lukashenko, ruling in the style of a Soviet apparatchik, rigged the elections to cling to power. Since then, the country’s citizens have taken to the streets in peaceful protest. The regime has responded with extreme brutality, including torture and murder.

Among the 35,000 people detained since then, several thousand women have been dragged off to prisons and camps. Those arrested include politicians and human rights activists, athletes, a former Miss Belarus, foreign citizens with Belarusian roots, journalists and actresses, and women with disabilities or chronic illnesses. In prison, these women are held under unbearable and unhygienic conditions. Despite the grave COVID-19 situation in the country, prisoners are crammed together in cells. Currently, 37 women are recognised as political prisoners by international organisations.

“These women and their fates,” says Elisabeth Ulm, Vice-President of the Paneuropa Movement Austria, “deserve far more attention and solidarity, as they are only standing up for what are also values of the European Union: civil liberty and democracy.” Caroline Hungerländer, Member of the Vienna State Parliament and board member of Paneuropa Youth Austria, adds: “The EU needs a clear foreign policy response to the despotism in Minsk and must ostracise this regime internationally!”

Featured image: © Belarusian Diaspora in Austria