No dictatorship, please: on Belarus and Alexander Lukashenko

Seen in Stockholm, Sweden, this morning.

Belarus is under fire.

Alexander Lukashenko, the dictator, liar, occupier, self-confessed election-swindler, and current murderer and kidnapper of Belarus people, has, of late, attacked the Belarus population with more fervour and violence than in quite some while.

One can say much for him, for example, his ability to disappear people:

In early September of this year, a man named Yuri Garavski contacted DW's Russian Service. The 41-year-old is living as an asylum-seeker in a German-speaking region in the Alps. Yuri asked us not to reveal which country he is in. He fears the long arm of the Belarusian security apparatus, his old comrades — because he is a key witness with a highly explosive story to tell.            

As a conscript, Garavski was assigned to a military unit in Belarus' capital, Minsk. In 1999, the Special Rapid Response Unit, SOBR, was recruited from its ranks. Garavski was with the SOBR right from the beginning, and was trained to fight serious offenders involved in organized crime. He described to DW how Dmitri Pavlichenko, then a lieutenant colonel and the founder of the SOBR, chose him to be part of a hand-picked group of soldiers. Their first mission, on the evening of May 7, 1999, ended in a crime.

Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com) https://www.dw.com/en/belarus-how-death-squads-targeted-opposition-politicians/a-51685204

The SOBR kidnapped Belarus' former interior minister, Yuri Zakharenko, in the middle of Minsk. They then took him to a military training area where, according to Garavski, he was shot by Pavlichenko, the death squad's commander. His body was then interred at a burial site at a cemetery in Minsk.

Zakharenko had dissociated himself from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, and was working with other forces critical of the government to try to depose him. Lukashenko, who became president in 1994, extended his powers by holding two controversial referendums in 1996. He has ruled the country ever since, unfettered by its parliament. Belarus is regarded as Europe's last dictatorship.

Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com) https://www.dw.com/en/belarus-how-death-squads-targeted-opposition-politicians/a-51685204

He's also spoken out on COVID-19:

In Belarus, authoritarian leader President Alexander Lukashenko has famously scoffed at the coronavirus as a “frenzy and psychosis.” His views also come with advice for citizens who don’t share his coronavirus scorn: Hit the sauna, down some vodka and get back to work. @WashingtonPost https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/no-lockdown-here-belaruss-strongman-rejects-coronavirus-risks-he-suggests-saunas-and-vodka/2020/03/27/7aab812c-7025-11ea-a156-0048b62cdb51_story.html

Then, there are massive protests. People of all ages are protesting vehemently against the government that's hell-bent on trying to repress people:

The People have All the Power.

Check out more about the current situation by listening a bit to the following two-part podcast documentary about Alexander Lukashenko and learn where we are today:

• Part One
• Part Two

After you've done that, feel free to engage with some of the leading Instagram accounts that report on what people experience, e.g. Belarus__2020, Stories from Belarus, Voices from Belarus, and Radio Svaboda. There are a lot of Belarus citizens on Telegram, in groups like vjbelarus. Naturally, those Instagram accounts and the Telegram group can be monitored; don't forget that Telegram is based in Russia and that Instagram is part of Facebook, a corporation that has never shied away from stuff like explicitly selling ads to those who hate Jews or making the genocide in Myanmar happen.