– In prison you are in such a state that you get used to everything. You are never alone. There are people around you all the time. 30 people live together in a much too small room. Darja Tsyultsova tells about how life behind the walls of a Belarusian prison was like for her. For almost two years she was imprisoned, convicted of disrupting public transport. At the weekend, Ales Byaljatski received the Nobel Peace Prize. He is imprisoned in Belarus, and his wife Natallia Pintsjuk accepted the award on his behalf. Read also: Peace Prize winner: Compromise with Russia is not peace Byalyatski shares the Nobel Peace Prize with the Russian human rights organization Memorial and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties (CCL). Humiliated and punished There is a serious 25-year-old who meets news. The stay in prison has left its mark. She says that it didn’t take much before the inmates were punished. – If you didn’t greet the prison guards, you could be forced to walk round and round one of the buildings on the prison grounds shouting good day every 5 metres. We were allowed to shower once a week, but if you did it on the wrong day, you were punished. You are humiliated and destroyed as a human being, she says. Arrested when she filmed commemoration Tsyultsova is a journalist and was at work for the independent TV channel Belsat on the day she was arrested. Through autumn 2020, she had covered many demonstrations. After Aleksandr Lukashenko had declared himself the winner of the presidential election in August two years ago, thousands of demonstrators had taken to the streets. Lukashenko was accused of cheating his victory. On Sunday 15 November 2020, Tsyultsova and colleague Katsiaryna Andreyeva were to cover a commemoration in the capital Minsk. A few days earlier, a 31-year-old man had died in hospital after being beaten up by unknown men. The authorities have denied that they had anything to do with the death. The celebration was not peaceful. Tsyultsova says that they filmed how the police beat demonstrators, fired shots and threw stun grenades. – Those who rule Belarus today are very afraid of live broadcasts. They don’t want people to know what’s going on. That’s why they ended our stream and we were arrested, says Tjultsova. The colleagues were first detained. Eventually they realized that the situation was much more serious. Three months later, both were sentenced to two years in prison for disrupting public transport. Journalists Darja Tsjultsova and Katsiaryna Andreyeva were sentenced to prison in 2021 for filming directly from a memorial. Today, Tsyultsova is free, but her colleague has received a new sentence. Photo: STRINGER / Reuters – Don’t know how I feel In Belarus, at least 35,000 people have been arrested since the demonstrations started in the summer of 2020. President for 28 years, Aleksandr Lukashenko, refuses to let go. People are still being imprisoned for the protests in 2020, according to Vjasna. The organization was founded by this year’s Nobel Prize winner Ales Byalyatski and works with human rights in Belarus. In September, Tsyultsova was released. One of the first things she did was go away with her mom. They had spoken on the phone from prison, but the conversations were difficult. – When I was allowed to call home, there was always a prison employee standing behind me and breathing on my back. Before the talks, they often said things that upset me. When I heard my mother’s voice on the phone, I often had a lump in my throat and I couldn’t say how I felt, she says. While Tsyultsova is now free, things are worse with her colleague. Katsiaryna Andreyeva has received a new sentence. This summer she was convicted of high treason and received eight years in prison. Tjultsova says she will continue to work as a journalist, but now from Poland. She is unsure what her stay in prison has done to her. – I don’t know how it is with me. When I was released, there had also been a war. I am very upset about what is happening in my own Belarus, but also about what is happening in Ukraine. Tjultsova nevertheless dares to hope for better times. When asked if there really is hope, the 25-year-old smiles for the first time during the interview. – I am neither a politician nor an analyst, but I believe that the moment Ukraine wins the war, Belarus will also change radically. Of course there is hope. Hope never goes away. – Don’t forget Belarus! Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaja is also in Norway in connection with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize. In her home country, her husband is still in prison. She says the people of Belarus support Ukraine, even though the authoritarian regime is helping Putin and Russia in the war. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre received Svetlana Tikhanovskaja at the Prime Minister’s office. Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum / NTB – It is the regime that attacks, not the people. The people of Belarus stand together with Ukraine, says Tikhanovskaja to news. The man has been in prison since 2020, and Tikhanovskaja herself lives in exile. She says this year’s peace prize is important for the fight against dictatorship in Belarus. – The award is a reminder that Belarus is not forgotten and not abandoned, she says. Tikhanovskaja has a prayer for the Norwegian people: – The most important thing of all is to distinguish clearly and loudly between the Belarusian regime and the Belarusian people. Words are important, she says.
ttn-69
Belarusian Darja (25) was a political prisoner in Lukashenko’s prison – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
