Natallia Radzina: Tsikhanouskaya's Office To Offer Signing Documents On Cooperation With KGB As Next Step?

It is necessary to deliver a tough ultimatum to Lukashenka's regime, not to cave in to it.

What's wrong with Tsikhanouskaya's office's One Stop Shop programme? What do the female political prisoners in Belarusian prisons go through? How to achieve the release of prisoners of Lukashenka's regime? Natallia Radzina, editor-in-chief of the Сharter97.org website, spoke about it on air of the Belsat TV channel.

Natallia Radzina reported about her speech in the European Parliament, where she described how women political prisoners are tortured in Belarusian prisons:

- I spoke at a meeting of the European Parliament Committee on Women's Rights and the EP Delegation for Relations with Belarus, where I described the most difficult situations among women political prisoners. In fact, we don't know how many women are in Belarusian prisons today, we only know the names of two hundred of them. Sure, there may be more women-political prisoners, because according to different data we have from eight to ten thousand people imprisoned for political reasons.

I explained what's happening to Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, activist of the European Belarus civil campaign, because the situation with her is catastrophic, the most difficult. It's the third time she's had her detention extended, she has a very serious health situation. She spent 200 days in a punitive isolation cell. I told the MEPs what a punishment cell is in Belarus. It's actually torture.

- What's the answer to all this? After all, we've been talking about it for years? Activists and politicians demand to press with sanctions. Still in square one. Today it's two years since our Belsat journalist Iryna Slaunikava has been detained.

- I spoke about Belsat journalist Katsiaryna Andreyeva, Iryna Slaunikava, as well as about Iryna Leushyna, Maryna Zolatava, Halina Derbysh, Kseniya Lutskina, who is in prison with brain cancer, Maryja Kalesnikava, Volha Zalatar and many others.

I had time to report about many cases, because the situation is terrible, people are simply killed in prisons. Both women and men. What can be done?

I believe that today all democratic forces should talk about strengthening economic sanctions against Lukashenka's regime. Those sanctions that exist today do not work, they are massively circumvented. It is necessary to demand that those sanctions, which are already in place, be fulfilled. The sanctions against Lukashenka and Putin's regimes must be synchronised. It is necessary to deliver an ultimatum to Lukashenka: either he releases people from prisons or a trade embargo is imposed. Moreover, the International Labour Organization is already demanding to introduce this measure against the Belarusian regime. There can be no other ways but pressure. As a former political prisoner, I know that Lukashenka is afraid of this.

- European politicians listen, pretend to understand, but everything remains in place. It seems to me that Belarusian civil society and politicians speak with one voice about sanctions, that it is necessary to close the "holes" in them. Probably, only Zianon Pazniak says that "sanctions are against Belarusians, not against the regime".

- Not only Zianon Pazniak. Lately I've been hearing more and more often that maybe "these sanctions are not necessary". Even in this broadcast, before our conversation, there was an opinion that "negotiations and dialogue are needed". I saw that relatives of political prisoners were indignant that the "One Stop Shop" service was set up at Tsikhanouskaya's office, where an appeal to political prisoners to write petitions to Lukashenka asking for pardon was posted.

What is the next step? Will they ask people to record "repentant" videos for BT? Or to sign papers on co-operation with the KGB right away? It mustn't be done. The right of every political prisoner is to make his own decision, but we cannot offer it from the outside. This demoralises the people and legitimises Lukashenka's regime.