“Lukashenka is a terrorist who must be put on trial”

Natallia Kaliada, the Belarus Free Theatre director, took part in the Oslo Freedom Forum.

The Free Theatre director and one of the leaders of the campaign Free Belarus Now was invited to Oslo by Thor Halvorssen, the president of Human Rights Foundation, and Russian human rights defender Garry Kasparov, the chairman of the Human Rights Foundation.

Natallia Kaliada joined Mario Vargas Llosa, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Ali Ferzat, a Syrian political cartoonist, and Lapiro de Mbanga, a Cameroonian musician, in the Forum's session themedThe Art of Dissent.

The Free Theatre director said in an interview with charter97.org that she had spoken about the campaign Give the Body Back launched by Free Belarus Now. Campaign activists demand to release the body of Uladzislau Kavaliou, who was executed in the Minsk metro bombing case, to his family and abolish the death penalty in Belarus; investigate the cases of disappeared and killed politicians and journalists in Belarus and release their bodies to their families; free political prisoners while they are alive.

The Free Theatre director noted that the world should have suspended all contacts with dictator Lukashenka after mass arrests in Belarus after the presidential elections on December 19, 2010. Instead, we see another round of backstage talks between the West and Europe's last dictatorship.

“Lukashenka deceived the European Union again by declaring a fake modernisation and the EU took the bait. Why did Europeans believe his lies? Because they want Belarus to remain the 'stability zone'. Almost 10 million Belarusians are hostages of European hypocrisy. Belarus remains a buffer zone between the EU and Russia and it is treated from the amoral point of view of Realpolitik.

The 'stability zone' becomes a zone of silence. The repressive machinery of Europe's last dictatorship gag Belarusians. If Europeans are unable to solve the dictatorship problem at thei doorstep, how can their declarations about human rights and common values be perceived in other parts of the world?

Belarus has been among top arms exporters recently. It's important to understand that the dictatorship is dangerous both for the people of Belarus and the entire world, just like Iran and Syria. But the West continues to involve this monster in the 'dialogue' due to the historical fear of Russia.

The world should have suspended all contacts with the last dictatorship of Europe after December 19, 2010. Lukashenka kidnaps, kills people, throw innocent people into jail and uses them for blackmailing, sells arms to Syria and Iran. The world should call this person a terrorist and place him on a most wanted list. Generally, such people are hunted down and put on trial, but somehow the world doesn’t apply it to Lukashenka.

You shouldn't think that your activity can “worsen the life of Belarusians”. The life of Belarusians only gets worse due to indifference and irresponsibly that politicians show towards the dictatorship in the centre of Europe. Once Belarus becomes free, it will be the first time in history when Europe will be free from dictators. Belarus will be called not the last dictatorship of Europe, but a young democracy,” the Free Theatre director said.

A suit was displayed on the stage during Natallia Kaliada's speech. As she told, it was the suit of executed Uladzislau Kavaliou.

“Uladzislau Kavaliou called this suit a 'wedding' one. It was seized from Kavaliou's home by police. The suit was returned to his mother after Uladzislau had been executed. Uladzislau's mother gave it to me and asked to help her return his body. Her son will never get married, but at least she could have his remains. How many suits have I to show you to make you solve the problem of Belarusian dictatorship? I urge you to put pressure on your government, so that they force the Belarusian authorities to release and rehabilitate all political prisoners. The number of such suits mustn't grow. We must forget today that we are theatre makers. We only need to remember that we are just human beings who can combine our efforts trying to bring back the value of one human life,” the Free Theatre director said.

Pictures of Alialsandr Lukashenka with the world's outlaws Fidel Castro, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez, Muammar Gaddafi and logos of charter97.org website, Viasna human rights centre, the Belarus Free Theatre and Free Belarus Now campaign were displayed on the stage screen during Kaliada's speech. A video appeal of British cinema and theatre stars calling on the UK's PM David Cameron to urge the Belarusian authorities to immediately release political prisoners was shown at the session.

A poster depicting naked human bodies forming the message “Fuck Realpolitik!” was demonstrated at the Freedom Forum.

Natallia Kaliada talked to Norwegian foreign minister Espen Barth Eide, Hermitage Capital Management CEO and lobbyist for the Magnitsky Act Bill Browder, head of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile Lobsang Sangay, co-founder of Serbian Otpor movement Srđa Popović and other politicians and activists.

Such prominent people as Aung San Suu Kyi, Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel were among speakers at previous forums.

The Forum closes with the awarding of the Vaclav Havel Prize to Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat, Cuban civil society group the Ladies in White, and North Korean democracy activist Park Sang Hak.