Philosopher Uladzimir Matskevich, renowned for his popularising of science, was arrested by the Belarusian authorities in the course of a police raid in August 2021. He is now serving a five-year sentence for the crime of having ideas unacceptable to the Lukashenko regime. Political analyst and literary scholar Aliaksandr Fiaduta was handed a 10-year sentence because the autocratic powers in Belarus considered his discussions on the future of the country corrupt and dangerous.
Theirs are just two names on the list of political prisoners compiled by the Viasna Human Rights Centre. As I speak to you today, the Lukashenko regime is holding more than 1330 political prisoners under lock and key. In doing so, it hopes to quash the free media, political opposition, unions and civil society in Belarus as a whole.
As someone with an academic background, I am appalled that in some countries, free, scientifically minded thinking is considered a crime and that entire nations are repressed with intellectual silence and darkness.
Unfortunately, the number of people being subjugated in such a way has only increased in recent times, at an alarmingly rapid rate, all over the world. Along with those imprisoned, there are those who have been deported and sent to labour camps, and those who have fallen victim to genocide. Adding fuel to this fire, of course, is Russia’s cruel war of aggression against Ukraine. Political prisoners are even being made in Russia of those who take to the streets with signs calling for peace and opposing the war.
That which is taking place in Ukraine recalls the darkest chapters of Estonia’s history. Russia is deporting tens of thousands of people from their homeland. Among them are an untold number of children who have been separated from their parents to be raised in Russia. This is just one aspect of the genocide the Putin regime is enacting against the people of Ukraine.
According to the annual report issued by Freedom House, 48% of the world’s population lives in countries which cannot be considered free and in which both civil and political freedoms are restricted. Much of Eurasia and Africa is comprised of such countries.
The very least we can do today is to spare a thought for those who are suffering at the hands of injustice. It reminds us that we must do more in caring about freedom and the future. Supporting the downtrodden in whatever ways we can makes our own democracy bolder, stronger, more effective and more credible.
