Please join Index on Censorship’s Mike Harris in conversation with Natalia Koliada, artistic director of the Belarus Free Theatre and spokesperson for Free Belarus Now.

In the wake of this week’s dramatic events in the Middle East, Mike and Natalia will discuss Belarus’s own internal struggle against a dictator. Why, when the Arab world has taken such monumental steps, is there still so little support for the people of Belarus, just two and half hours away? What comparisons can be drawn and lessons learned as Belarus steps up its movement for freedom?

Time Out has named the Belarus Free Theatre the “bravest theatre company in the world”. This underground company have reached international fame for defying the strict censorship and persecution they face in their country and their continued success in creating powerful contemporary drama. Natalia Koliada will speak about the vital role that the arts are playing in the fight against Europe’s last dictator.

Time: 4pm
Venue: 1 Summerhall, Edinburgh EH9 1QH
Free

Index on Censorship is one of the world’s leading organisations promoting freedom of expression, with editors across the globe. Index was founded as a magazine in 1972, when a group of writers, journalists and artists took to the page in defence of the basic human right of freedom of expression for writers in the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries.

So it was in the Grand Committee Room on Monday when the politics of Europe’s last dictator were presented in a remarkable performance by Jude Law. The actor is a Hollywood star and number one British heart-throb in the celebrity pages of our tabloid press as well as Hello, Heat and OK. But he has a second passion — for human rights — and that was on display on behalf of the oppressed people of Belarus.

Together with fellow actor and Old Vic artistic director, Kevin Spacey, as well as the playwright, Tom Stoppard, whose commitment to pro-democracy politics goes back to Charter 77, Jude Law came to the Commons to make his plea for freedom in Belarus. British ministers are fulminating about the odious Colonel Gaddafi as they call him every name under the Libyan sun as they work up public opinion to support the military intervention against the dictator of Tripoli. But there is another dictator a bit closer to home and that is the Macbeth of Minsk, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has held sway over his people since 1994. Lukashenko has to allow periodic elections under the Belarus constitution but he makes sure they are rigged. The OSCE has declared invalid every Belarus election since 1996.

There was one late last year. When 50,000 people demonstrated for democracy in Minsk on 19 December 2010 they were attacked by police. Several presidential candidates are still being held in KGB prisons. Twenty journalists are also detained.

There are so many places around the world where the political opponents of regimes are locked up. So how does one draw attention to Belarus? Index of Censorship, under the energetic leadership of the former political editor and Moscow correspondent, John Kampfner, has been working with Belarus Free Theatre and supported the link-up with Jude Law, Kevin Spacey and Sir Tom Stoppard (why a humble K and not a peerage for our greatest living playwright, by the way?) to present a production by the Belarus actors at the Commons.

The actors from Belarus have left their country as the alternative was to risk rotting in prison. They are stateless, homeless, and like a wandering set of players from Shakespeare’s time go from country to country seeking to play their parts and highlight oppression back home. (Memo to Teresa May: Allow them visas to stay here. Don’t be mean.)

Jude Law performed an amazing double-act satire with Nikolai Khalezin — Law speaking English and Khalezin his native Belarussian. The play, Generation Jeans, explains the market for blue jeans and rock music in Berlarus where trade in Western commodities, is as difficult as trade in democratic politics. Despite the two languages, the audience from different parts of the Commons were held spell-bound and grabbed the souvenirs of cut-up denim Jude and Nikolai handed out at the end.

Sadly, some of the Belarus Free Theatre ensemble could not make it in time for the performance as Commons security held them in an eternal queue. It’s not the police’s fault — they are only obeying orders after all — but surely someone can sort out the impossibility of getting visitors into the Commons? John Whittingdale, Pamela Nash and I sponsored the event and it was a dramatic (yes, that is the right word) evening that told us what we need to know about Europe’s last dictatorship.

What to do now? Everything has been tried. Travel bans. Economic sanctions. Withdrawing ambassadors. Being nice to Lukashenko. Being nasty to Lukashenko. He has to his east Russia under the neo-authoritarian Putin. The last thing Russia’s strongman wants is a fully democratic, Russian-speaking nation on his border. Minsk and Moscow quarrel but sadly as with Mugabe, Burmese generals, octogenarian Castro hermanos, there are some regimes that just go on and on. We can simply bear witness and show solidarity and Jude Law and the Belarus Free Theatre did that wonderfully in the Commons. But Lukashenko should ponder the fate of his fellow ex-Soviet era leader, Leonid Kuchma, who was booted out of power in Kiev during Ukraine’s Orange revolution in 2005. In 2000, the body of the Ukrainian journalist, Georgiy Gonadze was found a few hundred metres from his head. The political murder was meant to intimidate other investigative reporters highlighting the corruption of the Kuchma regime. Last month Leonid Kuchma went on trial, protesting his innocence, in connection with the Gonadze murder. So justice can catch up and one day the Berlarus Free Theatre will invite Jude Law to perform in Minsk.

Denis MacShane is MP for Rotherham and was a PPS and Minister at the FCO 1997-2005.

The British playwright Sir Tom Stoppard yesterday dedicated a special commendation to prisoners of conscience in Belarus. Members of the Belarus Free Theatre collected the award at the 11th annual Freedom of Expression Awards.

The special award was dedicated to all the prisoners of conscience who have been detained because they exercised their right to free expression in criticising President Lukashenko.

“This Index on Censorship award is all the more important as the figure of prisoner of conscience should have been consigned to history,” Sir Tom Stoppard said. “Yet in Europe in 2011 there are 42 prisoners of conscience held by the government of Belarus.”

Interviewed by Evan Davis on the Radio 4 Today programme this morning, Sir Tom Stoppard described the Belarusian regime as an “anomaly”.

“It’s a way of dictatorship which has been consigned in history in Europe except in this one place and the Index on Censorship awards … are acknowledging these Belarusian victims of what is now an iron fist in an iron glove.”

Natalia Koliada, the co-founder of the Belarus Free Theatre, was one of those arrested and gave an emotional acceptance speech at last night’s awards, paying tribute to Oleg Bebenin, a Charter 97 journalist found dead in suspicious circumstances. Irina Bogdanova, sister of imprisoned presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, said “together we will win”, repeating a Sannikov slogan.

On 19 December, the night of the presidential elections in Belarus, a large demonstration was held in Independence Square in Minsk. The protest was dispersed violently, with the arrest of around 700 people. Those held were treated appallingly.

Natalia Koliada was one of those arrested. The Free Theatre had performed at an event organised by Index on Censorship just two weeks previously at the Young Vic. Whilst Koliada was in prison, guards made vile threats: “You are animals. We want to kill you. Our dream is to kill you.”

Those detained were not held in cells, but had to stand in freezing prison corridors. All the prisoners had biometric photographs taken and were fingerprinted and filmed.

Ales Mikhalevich, one of seven presidential candidates who was detained, has subsequently made allegations of torture. In total, 42 people face criminal prosecutions for organising a “mass disturbance”. The charges carry a prison sentence of up to 15 years. With so many presidential candidates amongst those charged, it is likely there is a political motive behind the charges.

• Also see the Independent’s recent report on Belarus Free Theatre at this link.

The Belarus Free Theatre is a high-profile thorn in the side of Alyaksandr Lukaskenko’s authoritarian regime. On 5 December, Index on Censorship hosted a double-bill performance by the Free Theatre at the Young Vic with guest appearances from Sir Ian McKellen, Jude Law, Sienna Miller, Samuel West and Adjoa Andoh. Koliada speculated that arresting Khalezin may be an attempt by the authorities to stop a forthcoming performance in New York.

Khalezin is not just a cultural figure in Belarus. Before founding the Belarus Free Theatre with his wife, he was a renowned journalist. He was sacked from various newspapers for articles criticising the authoritarian leadership of President Lukashenko. Whilst a journalist, Khalezin mentored Natalia Radzina and Oleg Bebenin. Bebenin, a civil society activist, was found dead in suspicious circumstances just three months before the elections. Khalezin conducted the wake which brought together many from the opposition in Belarus including presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov and former President Stanislav Shushkevich. Radzina, the editor of the Charter97 website faces up to 15 years in prison after she was charged with organising a mass riot under Article 293 of the criminal code.

There are fears that Nikolai may be subject to the same charges brought against Radzina and other opposition activists. Charter97 report she has only just met with a lawyer, who saw blood dripping from her ears. Radzina was beaten by police prior to her arrest. Twenty three people are currently being detained by the KGB under Article 293 of the Belarusian Criminal Code; Charter97′s entire editorial team are in detention alongside presidential candidates Andrei Sannikov and Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu (the President of Belarusian PEN). You can see the full list of those detained here.

Index on Censorship presents…
Go East! Sun 29 Aug
Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, E2 6NB
7pm ’til late
Belarus Free Theatre * Comedy: Miriam Elia, The Fix * DJs from Panik.com

A day and night of cabaret, comedy and DJs, with a performance from the sensational underground Belarus Free Theatre!

Join Index on Censorship, the UK’s leading freedom of expression organisation, and the Belarus Free Theatre at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, for a packed night of cabaret, comedy from Sony award short listed Miriam Elia and The Fix – and all-night mischief. Come and see a mischievous mix of Belarusian funk DJs, live music, cabaret and comedians – all for the exceptionally brave people who dare to speak up, and challenge Belarus’s dictator Lukashenko.

24 hours left to get £5 tickets:
http://go-east.eventbrite.com/

The multi-award winning Belarus Free Theatre, banned in their native Belarus, is renowned for staging underground and uncensored performances that draw attention to the continuing problems faced by Belarusians in “Europe’s last dictatorship”. Their recent performances, including at the Soho Theatre, London and the Under the Radar Festival, New York, have won widespread acclaim. On July 13 the troop performed a rendition of ‘Numbers’ in an event hosted by Index on Censorship and presented by Tom Stoppard at the Free Word Centre in London.

Confirmed DJs: Panik, Mr. Chips, DJ Perry Stroika and the Tblisi Sound Machine & DJ Gaz Nost.

Now watch

Video: Natalia Koliada on surviving in Europe’s last dictatorship

Video: Sir Tom Stoppard presents… Belarus Free Theatre

Award-winning playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, who has long associations with both Index on Censorship and the Belarus Free Theatre, introduced the evening:

Now watch

Video: Natalia Koliada on surviving in Europe’s last dictatorship

Video: Belarus Free Theatre perform Numbers