It’s been two years since the people of Belarus went to the polls. The entrenchment of the Lukashenka regime had made elections a dangerous time for civil society and anyone brave enough to stand as an opposition candidate. But despite state repression, a militarised and unaccountable security force, and a skewed electoral landscape, Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s grip on power looked weak in August 2020.
Until it didn’t.
Officially, Lukashenka won a landslide victory, securing 80.23% of the vote. In a state that had been hollowed out, official vote tallies mean both very little and everything at the same time. In the two years that have followed, a protest movement contesting the outcome of the election has been brutally suppressed, senior opposition leaders imprisoned or forced to flee and at least 1,261 political prisoners detained (as of 9 August 2022). The regime and its security forces continue to behave with impunity. Lukashenka has also backed the invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s Russia.
Russia’s actions in Ukraine have refocused the world’s attention on the region, but Belarusian prisons are a record of a brutal clampdown that is largely obscured from view. Since August 2021, Index on Censorship has worked with local partners, including Politzek and Belarus Free Theatre, to translate and publish letters written by people detained since the election. To date we have published 23 letters that shine a light on what goes on in Lukashenka’s prisons.
Many describe the rampant abuse of power that comes clothed in the language of public order. Levon Khalatrian, a bar manager and opposition volunteer, was sentenced to two years of restricted freedom or khymiya. The February 2021 sentence was for “breaching public order” on election night by shouting slogans, obstructing traffic, and clapping his hands. Maria Kalenik, a 23-year-old student, was accused of organising and participating in group actions that violated public order. Hanna Vishniak, a volunteer with an activist Telegram channel, was convicted of “organising and preparing activities that grossly violate public order”. On 4 June 2021 she was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
Each letter is the result of a careful calculation between truth and concealment, a melding made necessary by the censorship regime in place. ‘“In Belarusian prisons, letters pass through strict two-way censorship regimes… Words, sentences, and even pages can be withdrawn, whole letters can be returned to the sender or simply disappear if the rules are not followed. This is, however, the best case scenario. In the worst-case, a person can be sent to a punishment cell, beaten, and threatened,” says researcher and human rights activist Ala Sivets.