Migrants Say Belarusians Took Them to E.U. Border and Supplied Wire Cutters
"Belarus airs more footage of detained activist as family call it ‘hostage’ video ""Belarus Forces Down Plane to Seize Dissident; Europe Sees ‘State Hijacking’"""
Iraqi Kurds and other migrants said they were fleeing despair at home, but Belarus encouraged them, offering visas and helping them get to the border.
By Jane Arraf and Elian Peltier Nov. 13, 2021
SULAIMANIYA, Iraq — The sudden surge of migrants to Belarus from the Middle East that is now the focus of a political crisis in Europe was hardly an accident.
The government of Belarus loosened its visa rules in August, Iraqi travel agents said, making a flight to the country a more palatable journey to Europe than the dangerous sea crossing from Turkey to Greece.
It increased flights by the state-owned airline, and then actively helped funnel migrants from the capital, Minsk, to the frontiers with Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.
And Belarusian security forces gave them directions on how to cross into the European Union countries, even handing out wire cutters and axes to cut through border fences.
Air Route to Belarus Closed to Migrants in Bid to Halt Crisis
Hoping to stem the flow of migrants stuck on the border of Belarus and Poland, Dubai banned Iraqi and Syrian passengers from traveling to Minsk.
By Isabella Kwai and Monika Pronczuk Nov. 14, 2021Updated 5:15 p.m. ET
Dubai on Sunday began banning travelers from Iraq from passing through the emirate on their way to Belarus, cutting off the last major air route from the Middle East to Minsk in an effort to halt a humanitarian crisis that has left thousands of people stranded at Belarus’s border with Poland.
Along with the Iraqis, Syrians also appeared to be blocked from boarding airlines in Dubai, despite holding Belarusian visas, according to travel agents and passengers. Some had leveraged their life savings to make the journey.
Ales Bialiatski: Nobel Prize-winning activist sentenced to 10 years in jail
"Belarus airs more footage of detained activist as family call it ‘hostage’ video" [...]European officials have also decried the interview. The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, on Friday said it was filmed “clearly under duress” and that “those involved in the filming, coercion and direction of the interview must be held accountable”. P - Ahead of the broadcast, Viasna said Pratasevich must have been coerced into speaking by Belarusian security services because he was facing “unfair, but very serious accusations”. P - “Everything Pratasevich will say was said under duress – at the very least psychological duress,” the Viasna head, Ales Bialiatski, told AFP Thursday. “Whatever he is saying now is pure propaganda, under which there is no truthful basis.”
Published 3 hours ago
Ales Bialiatski pictured in November 2021
By Oliver Slow BBC News
A court in Belarus has sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison.
He was convicted of smuggling and financing "actions grossly violating public order", the Viasna human rights group said.
Supporters of Mr Bialiatski, 60, say the authoritarian regime of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko is trying to silence him.
Mr Bialiatski was one of three winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.
He was arrested in 2021 following massive street protests over widely disputed elections .. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54961111 .. the previous year, and accused of smuggling cash into Belarus to fund opposition activity.
Demonstrators were met with police brutality and Lukashenko critics were regularly arrested and jailed .. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57733592 .. during the demonstrations, which started in 2020.
Mr Bialiatski was in court alongside two fellow campaigners, Valentin Stefanovich and Vladimir Labkovich.
Mr Stefanovich was sentenced to nine years in prison, while Mr Labkovich received seven years, according to Viasna, the group Mr Bialiatski founded in 1996.
Mr Bialiatski's wife, Natalya Pinchuk, said the trial was "obviously against human rights defenders for their human rights work", describing it as a "cruel" verdict.
Referring to her husband's letters from prison, where he has been held since arrest, she said: "He always writes that everything is fine. He doesn't complain about his health - he tries not to upset me."
Kostya Staradubets, a spokesperson for Viasna, said the sentences imposed on the three activists were "breaking our hearts".
Speaking to the BBC World Service's Newshour programme, he said: "We knew that our three colleagues would get long prison terms but anyway it's still a shock, it's breaking our hearts, not only the [prison] terms are long but the conditions also very horrific.
"We call [the conditions] torture actually because they're being held for several months ina 19th Century building, poorly lit cells with no fresh air, no sunlight, poor food, little or no healthcare."
Belarus's exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said the sentencing was "simply appalling".
"We must do everything to fight against this shameful injustice and free them," she said.
Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize, said the verdict was a "tragedy" for Mr Bialiatski and described the charges as "politically motivated".
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned what he described as "sham trials", adding they were "yet another appalling example of the Lukashenko regime trying to silence those who stand up in defence of human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people in Belarus".
There are currently 1,458 political prisoners in Belarus, according to Viasna. Authorities claim there are none.
In awarding the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize to Mr Bialiatski, Ms Reiss-Anderson said the Belarusian government had "for years tried to silence him".
"He has been harassed, he has been arrested and jailed, and he has been deprived of employment," she said.
Mr Bialiatski is a veteran of the human rights movement in Belarus, establishing Viasna in 1996 in response to the brutal crackdown of street protests that year by Mr Lukashenko, who has been president of Belarus since the office was established in 1994.
He was jailed for three years in 2011 after being convicted on tax evasion charges, which he denied.
WATCH: Highlights of the Belarus leader's exclusive interview with the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg from 2021.
-- Insert: This looks the full interview
--
Mr Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been described as Europe's last dictator.
Increasingly reliant on Moscow for economic, political and military support, he has hosted Russian forces and allowed them to use Belarus as a staging ground for its invasion of Ukraine.
Last month he told the BBC he was ready to "wage war" alongside Russia .. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64664560 .. "if someone - even a single soldier - enters our territory from there [Ukraine]".
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