On Monday, the US and Canada each separately unsheathed nearly two dozen sanctions targeting Belarus for its vicious crackdown on opposition and supporting Russian aggression against Ukraine. The White House reports they sanctioned one dozen entities and ten people, while Ottawa targeted 21 people with punitive measures. Belarusian supremo Alexander Lukashenko, the longest serving president in Europe (30 years), ferociously persecuted protestors and other activists following the discredited 2020 presidential election which he won for the sixth consecutive time.
In office since 1994, the despotic President Lukashenko did not see the need to change the name of the notorious secret police, the KGB, which Belarus inherited after the fall of the USSR. This totalitarian is one of the most brutal dictators to ever blight civilization, sharing this ignoble distinction with Kim Jong-Un of North Korea.
President Lukashenko’s police-state has zero tolerance for even a hint of dissent. Recently, a person was jailed for displaying a historic Belarusian flag and another man accused of lèse-majesté died in jail before trial. Pro-democracy activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Byalyatski has been languishing in prison for three years amid increasing fears about his deteriorating health.
And the litany of oppression is not limited to journalists and political dissidents. The Belarusian KGB prosecuted at least 100 people simply for accepting a two-week supply of food from individuals registered with INeedHelpBY, an online US NGO.
The members of the rock band Nizkiz were recently sentenced to imprisonment and hard labor for “organizing and plotting actions grossly violating public order.” Their song “Rules” was the Belarusian protest anthem following the phonus-bolonus 2020 Lukashenko presidential victory.
Sources:
www.upi.com/…
www.rferl.org/…
abcnews.go.com/…
www.hrw.org/...
en.wikipedia.org/...