If you were growing up in Melbourne, among friends whose parents or grandparents had emigrated to avoid persecution in face of Nazi tyranny, there are many countries, duchies, towns that are etched in your memory, like the numbers tattooed on the forearms of some of them.
Minsk. Bialystock. Olsztyn. Gdansk. Lowicz, Kalisz.. many of them bearing a history going back centuries of Duchy of Lithuania, Poland, Russia ..
For us, Minsk was on our lips. As children we heard stories about its great jewish past.
Minsk in 1772.
Professor Shaul Liberman of Jerusalem had written:
I arrived in Minsk in 1915, during the war. I had never seen such a Jewish city before. I was still young, but I looked around and saw that this city of Minsk was different than other cities that I had seen in my life. It was a city that was all Jewish. I barely saw any gentiles there.
Lately my heart has filled with sorrow for Minsk the largest city in Belarus. As I became interested in geography and Politics and began my own wondering in the world, one name became unforgettable, especially after the dissolution of the USSR..
Alexander Lukachenko
The last dictator of Europe.
The stories coming out of Belarus were not pretty. Each day another tragedy. You do have to read or listen to the truly International News sites (none in the USA) such as BBC World Service or the magazine The Economist to know what was happening in Belarus.
Everyone heard about the RyanAir incident when Lukachenko forced a flight to land in Minsk to arrest one of the dissident journalist and his russian girlfriend.
That news boiled the minds of the West Europeans and one by one many restrictions were placed on the leadership of Belarus. One thing the RyanAir incident did was to bring attention to Belarus and the rule of absolute dictatorship.
I wanted to write to someone in Belarus to add my sympathy for the Belarussian people and moral support for their struggle.
I found an email of a person and wrote a letter.
hello there ..
this morning on BBC world service there was a documentary about Lukashenko and how difficult it would be for him to be dislodged, now that he has got his buddy Putin. and also the end would be a violent one, as he would not go down without a fight.
we are thinking of you, struggling with so many things
remember, even though we are not in a position to help you , we are thinking of you and in discussions bring the plight of your people to the world.
all of us in the western world are watching what is happening in Belarus and hope you are well and that dealing well with the pandemic as well as the turmoil in your country.
My best wishes to you during this difficult time
Thank you for the moral support! We are having a rollercoaster here! We hope, then we lose hope, then we hope again! A few weeks ago a 17-year-old committed suicide because he couldn't bear the pressure of interrogation. A little earlier a political prisoner died in prison. Noone believes he died a natural death. The absurdity and injustice go overboard. A 78-year-old pensioner got a heavy fine because she put a flower at the place where a man was shot during the protest in August. If someone says something bad to a policeman, they can go to prison for an insult. If policemen do something bad, they get away with it, even if there is evidence. We get arrested, beaten, fined, humiliated for flowers, red-and-white clothes, the victory sign, just for our opinion. The other day I watched an interview with a girl who told about the conditions in prison where she spent 15 days. She was freezing there, slept on the floor. After that she had to undergo an operation for the removal of an ovary. Some people say this interview is fake, but to me the story sounds believable. I was kept in confinement for 15 days because I was in the woods with a poster in my hands which was designed to remind the police of conscience. Some men, who were there as well, were violently beaten. I was hit on the head. The stroke wasn't too violent, but strong enough to make me fall. A couple of nights I had to sleep with an open window (not on the floor, of course), but I was cold even with all my clothes on. I took ill, they didn't care. (They said they didn't have any medications). I had a cough for a month after that. On the first day they just gave me a filthy mattress, no bedclothes at all. A woman, who was a couple of days in the same cell with me, took pity on me and gave me hers when she was discharged. She was there for hard drinking and she showed me more humanity than the police (not all of them were bad (some even tried to show some kind of compassion), but...). The first 3 days I wasn't allowed any parcels. I didn't have anything, not even a piece of soap, for 3 days. The court was a sheer circus: sham witnesses - 2 policemen, whose evidence wasn't always in accord, a judge, who had a ready verdict before the court. 15 days without fresh air, hot water, decent food. 15 days of cold, dusk, smoke from cigarettes of other prisoners (I wonder that I didn't suffocate as I don't smoke), desperation and hopelessness. We are fed up with this lawlessness, violence, disrespect.
But hope dies last, as they say. So we continue fighting, extremely cautiously, more like partisans, though.
Thanks again for your words!
the letter touches my heart , makes me feel guilty of this life in the USA where our worries are so small and distant compared to what you and your compatriots are going through.
Wherever there is hope there is life.. so it is not time yet to lose hope. It is incredible that Belarus is under such tight soviet style control. You see by 1991 , the soviet style was already falling apart but the infrastructure persisted in Russia, Belarus and some other Central Asian republics such as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan etc.
This time I think he has bit off more than he can chew, with the diversion of Ryanair. He will try to hold on a little longer but with more and more restrictions put on him and his economy, there will be a descent first and then an ascent. we can only hope that Minsk once again will celebrate democracy.
I have a blog www.medicoanthropologist.blogspot.com
I would love to put your letter in my blog.. just a letter from Belarus. with no names or references to you . If that is okay let me know .
In the meantime, these wounds are very deep, the trauma long lasting. During the past year I have been able to comfort people with psychological problems because of the fears they had created themselves. But in your case, everything is real and not imagined.
My best wishes to you and I am glad you wrote to me
My best wishes to you and your struggle is not alone, many of us are part of your struggle as well
this is the last note I received from Belarus
Thank you for your letter. Every time, when somebody lets us know that we are not alone in our struggle, gives some comfort. We are so grateful to all the people abroad who support us and sympathize with us.
As for putting my letter into your blog, I find it a great idea. I am not sure how it can help us, but the more people know about the situation here, the more they can learn to avoid it in their own society.
It's difficult to travel now, not impossible, though. Quite a few people have already fled the country. But, as far I as I know, a lot of them would love to come back if we win.
Thanks a million for all your wishes! We all need it!
WHY ARE SINGLE INDIVIDUALS
LUKACHENKO IN BELARUS
PUTIN. IN RUSSIA
BOLSANARO IN BRASIL
ERDOGAN IN TURKEY
given so much concentrated power that they can field so much control over he lives and dreams of people. One cannot compare one evil to another, but Lukachenko stands out..
I think of all the people whose dreams have been put on hold by these dictators, especially the young and aspiring Belarus people.
I would be very happy to wave the flag of peace and tranquility for the people of Belarus
(above protest against the dictator)
