"Let Them Impose Sanctions, If Only This Scum Will Go Away"

Monologues of Belarusian women about life in the country under Lukashenka.

The hijacking of the Ryanair plane is the reason why Belarus found itself on a new round of international isolation. But if the world has just begun to notice what is happening in Belarus, then its inhabitants have been living under internal occupation for almost a year, since the August protests.

Several of the most ordinary, but, at the same time, very special people, told MBH Media what thoughts and hopes they live with in their homeland.

Some of our heroines have had their names changed for their safety.

Hanna, head of a private company, Hrodna, 44 years old

- It seems that the Lukashenka regime has taken everything from us. We are some kind of slaves. Last year, when people were rising in all cities, there was some hope that we could change something. But then the rose-colored glasses slept. Nothing changes with flowers, everything only gets worse. I was detained twice, I was in jail.

My biggest fear is that they will come for me. In the city, they go to homes, come with searches without any documents, take everything from the apartment, take the money. They go to those who have somehow appeared in the past. They came to see my childhood friend. They came to me, I did not open the door. For several days, I then sat in the apartment with the lights off and the phone off. They are just intimidating.

It is impossible to live in this hell, we are ready to just drink water, let them impose sanctions, if only this scum will go away.

I have never been interested in politics, to be honest, but now it takes my nerves and health away from me. My former employees say that they are following us, they say that my phone can be tapped. I no longer just call the number, only through the applications. I constantly look around, sometimes I even pull my SIM card out of my phone. In the center of the city, cameras with a face recognition system were hung. I look at the floor all the time when I walk past.

But there is hope, I watch and read different bloggers, I even do tarot layouts with my friends to find out the future. The cards predict for the summer that Lukashenka and his people will leave. I would only really like him to answer before the law, before the Belarusian law. The death penalty has not been abolished in our country. And so that all the judges are imprisoned as much as they imprison people.

Valiantsina, stationery saleswoman, Baranavichy, 36 years old

- Previously, we had good police in the city - if your phone or car was stolen, then we knew that we could rely on them. We were friends with these people, celebrated weddings and birthdays. Now some guards are walking the streets. The city center is constantly patrolled, these people peer into everyone's faces as if we are some kind of criminals and bandits. They are no longer our friends.

Our people are friendly, but now many have left the neighboring chats, people have been intimidated. And not so long ago, everyone told each other where to go and where not to, so God forbid to run into a patrol. Although it looked like some kind of catch-up game, it is difficult to live in such conditions. We hid fear behind this game, everyone is afraid that they will be detained for nothing. At best, you will sit in jail for a few days, and at worst, for several years. The fear has recently become too much, people no longer go out to protest, everyone is afraid for themselves and their relatives.

We try to resist in a different way. The local newspaper Intex recently published an interview with Tsikhanouskaya. And it all immediately began in the city: the newspaper was forbidden to be published, the issues were taken from the shops, but they managed to hide some issues and still handed them out to people.

You can't keep track of everyone, even if the whole army is here. We, though a little bit, will support each other. So far, they haven't started putting people in jail for this.

In the kitchen, in the evenings, we laugh, of course, with friends, at the fact that this cockroach is already completely crazy, we hope that his own people will throw him off or people will wake up again, but it's not always funny. If someone unfamiliar knocks on the door, then you immediately shut up and think: "I hope it will blow over." My mother jokes that, like in the USSR, they have already intimidated us. You can't fly anywhere, just like then.

Sviatlana Malashevich, Minsk, 48 years old

After protests in August, Sviatlana's daughter, 19-year-old Sonia Malashevich, was sentenced to two years in prison for painting police shields with spray cans. Sonia has been in prison for seven months.

- The events of the summer of 2020 and subsequent ones have crossed out everything that came before them. Neither my life nor the life of my country will ever be the same as before. They walked over me and, with a red dotted line, divided the time when my daughter was at large and that rather long period when she was arrested. You can't call it life anymore. This is a constant emotional swing, this is a state of constant expectation, uncertainty, anxiety.

People in prisons are restricted in receiving correspondence; their letters are not sent, there is no opportunity to subscribe to magazines, they are denied calls, the amount of money in their personal accounts is reduced so that they cannot buy everything they need according to their needs. In addition, there are fines, punishment cells, penal isolation cells. This is what takes my mind, and this is a small piece of information that reflects the tragic reality taking place in the prison. Now I know almost nothing about my daughter.

Sonia has already been sent to the punishment cell in Homel colony No. 4 twice over the past two weeks, I do not receive letters from her, a lawyer is not allowed to see her. They say that she somehow "misbehaved" and, for this, ended up in these terrible conditions. It's cold, concrete floors, no connection; according to some information, there is not even bed linen. When you find out about this, you experience another shock. Life unsettles you, for a while, you stop functioning. This situation makes you defenseless, but in it, you need to get together and use all your resources to support your loved one, my daughter Sonia.

Recently I put together a parcel for my daughter, took it to Homel, and only there I found out that they would not accept it because Sonia “behaved wrongly.” Our transmission system is much better when convicts are waiting to be sent to a colony. Then the parcels are regular - once a week. You have the opportunity to fill the gap in the diet with fruits and other products. In the regime, everything is strictly limited - only 3-4 transmissions a year and a clear number of short and long visits with relatives. In addition, this minimum can be cut for violation of the regime, and no one will inform relatives about this.

At work, the management reacted with understanding to my situation, colleagues also helped, and this greatly supported me in my time, when Sonia was still in Zhodzina and Minsk. I could visit her two or three times. I thought that when she was transferred to a colony, it would become psychologically easier for me and her, after all, the sky above the head is better than the bars. But the reality turned out to be cruel and murderous.

Some kind of joy associated with the usual leisure of my past life, holidays, is not included in my plans.

This year, I didn't even have a New Year, because that year is not over for me yet. I do not understand how you can celebrate something in a state of war.