Open Letter of Palina Charenda to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

Only economic sanctions against the regime will protect the Belarusians.

Palina Sharenda-Panasyuk, the activist of the European Belarus civil campaign, addressed an open letter to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya:

- Good afternoon, Sviatlana! My name is Palina. We know each other at second hand. We have some things in common - I also have two children, and my husband is often jailed. His name is Andrei Sharenda. He has served 55 days under political articles, and there is no guarantee that they will not add other 15 days and then more.

Our Brest TDF is a ten dark, fuggy cells in a semi-basement premise, overcrowded after detentions, with a dim light around the clock. It is hard to stay there for three days to say nothing of a month...

I get things done on my own. I take part in Marches on Sundays. For this reason, the local regime mutt reported on me in the department of education. She asked to take measures. Tens of Brest citizens joined me at the meeting of the Commissions for the Affairs of Minors. They wanted to hear how one could blackmail parents with children for the expression of political views. Such communication was new for the women in the commission, and they stepped back. Due to people's solidarity, my children stayed with me.

In general, during the month and a half of autumn, there were many such stories in Belarus. There were blatant cases that effected Elena Lazarchyk's son, a family from Homel with five (!) children parted, my acquaintance, the mother of three children, spent almost four days in a TDF allegedly "before the trial," this Sunday in Hrodno, charteners grabbed a 13-year-old girl just because she stood up for her father. How many more stories are there that were not made public?

Sviatlana, de jure, you are the elected president of Belarus, even though you feel uncomfortable or call yourself so. Millions of Belarusians voted for you, even I went to the polling station for the first time since 1994 and gave you my vote. What should the elected presidents do? That's right, to listen to voters, to protect them.

Belarusians dream of Freedom. For the sake of it they daily partisan in the yards, go on weekly Marches, risk being beaten, imprisoned, parted with children and risk their lives. It is in your power to protect them from further violence! Thank you for insisting on personal sanctions against the most odious yes-men of a repeated usurper, thank you for demanding the extension of these sanctions. Maybe we should go even further and recognize riot police as a criminal organization as it was done in due time to Hitler's SS. I hope the people of Belarus will achieve this in future.

Here comes the key point, Sviatlana. You should step up. The denial of economic sanctions against Lukashenka's regime means that you, unfortunately, do not protect your voters from some mythical economic misfortunes, but untie the authorities' hands for further violence. I want to believe that you act this way being under pressure. It is easier for women to sacrifice our lives rather than being blackmailed by the lives of our children and a husband. Such blackmail is unbearable. Nevertheless, are you ready to take responsibility for thousands other beaten and injured Belarusians, thousands of imprisoned, children parted from parents?

When the administration of American President Ronald Reagan imposed real economic sanctions on the USSR, it collapsed. Dozens of countries, hundreds of millions of people gained freedom.

Sviatlana, history has offered you a unique chance to speak on behalf of Belarusians to world leaders. Be worthy of it, nerve yourself up. Economic sanctions against the dictatorship is a guarantee that our protest will go down in history as peaceful from beginning to end, because the patience of people has limits and once they may be tired of being an underdog. Finally, as for us: economic sanctions are the key to the prison with our husbands. Take advantage of it!

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