Giving a voice to those imprisoned unjustly in Belarus
Following a highly disputed election, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenka claimed victory in August 2020. Protests erupted and a vicious crackdown ensued. One year since the election, there are more than 600 political prisoners in Belarus.
Letters from Lukashenka’s Prisoners gives unjustly detained individuals a voice by collecting, translating, and publishing letters on our channels on a weekly basis.
"It can't go on like this for much longer, it just can't. I know we will endure it with dignity, though it is not easy for all of us, on this side of the fence and on the other. Then we will laugh, cry, and shout, but we will do it together."
"I often think about my past life and question what is happening, but every time I come to the same conclusion – that it is irreversible, necessary, and that change is inevitable."
"I keep waiting for the day when I want to live again. You wrote about smiling. I know that, but it's so difficult here. Everything here has become meaningless without children, life is no fun."
"Penguin and Papa paced nonstop from wall to wall. To the guards above, they must have looked like zombies flailing around the little courtyard in desperation :) The cement walls are in bad condition, and there’s a lattice overhead, and a few green leaves higher up along the walls. Sometimes good things can grow, even in cement."
Musician and political activist
Detained on 9 September 2020
"The court hearing took place today [Dad] so I already know how you had to ‘get changed’ – I bet everybody in the detention centre could hear me laugh!"
