Supporting Belarus' climb out from under dictatorship

The Washington Post, December 27, 2013

Diplomat and former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov: "As a presidential candidate in Belarus three years ago, I took part in massive demonstrations the size of which my country had not seen for years. In central Minsk, people from all walks of life braved a police state,


and the cold, to protest the widespread election fraud by which Belarusan dictator Alexander Lukashenko stole the presidential election. We also backed a future that lies with Europe, not a re-created Soviet Union. --- numerous other political prisoners remain in prison in Belarus, including my colleague, presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich, and human rights defender Ales Bialiatski."


Read the whole article by Andrei Sannikov:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/supporting-belaruss-climb-out-from-under-dictatorship/2013/12/26/54aadd60-6c08-11e3-aecc-85cb037b7236_story.html
"This demonstration of the people’s will scared Lukashenko and his thugs. Riot police brutally broke up our peaceful rally and beat women, senior citizens and anyone else they could reach, evoking images not seen in my country since the end of World War II. I spent that Christmas and the next — altogether more than a year — in a Soviet-era jail as a political prisoner."



Photo: KL (the flag)

Photos from Internet: (Sannikov released, beaten by the police in Minsk, December 2010 during a peaceful demonstration, his wife Iryna Khalip in picture)