"We got no other choice but to keep fighting". Belarusian activists call for help

A press conference organised by the head of the European Parliament's Delegation for relations with Belarus Robert Biedroń and Belarusian activists based in Poland took place on Monday in front of the Belarusian Embassy in Warsaw.

"After yesterday's incident I've received over a thousand threats saying I will be the next person brought back to Belarus by the regime, supposedly to face the law, but let's not forget Lukashenka's words that "sometimes there's no time for law" - co-founder of the Nexta portal Stepan Putilo said at the conference.

He admitted he was afraid for his life. "I must continue the work we've started here together with Roman (Protasevich). This is about our lives, as we want to have a free and independent country. (...) We're considered as one of the biggest enemies of the state in Belarus. We've been considered as people having links to terrorism. This carries capital punishment in Belarus" - Putilo said.

"The situation is terrifying. The scale of repressions is unprecedented in the history of sovereign Belarus. The recent events (...) only prove that the regime knows no boundaries and will do anything not only to keep people afraid to speak against it, but even think wrong about it. We will continue fighting, as we've no other choice or possibility" - he stressed.

"It's no coincidence that I'm here all shaken up, in a dirty white-red-white dress. That's exactly how we all are, completely drawn" - said Polish-Belarusian activist Jana Shostak. "We ask for support, a real support from the European Union" - she appealed.

"The society is terrified to a point that people are afraid to change photos on Facebook. People are afraid to discuss the situation with their families. Everyone are on an emotional rollercoaster" - she explained.

"We must send out an SOS. Enough silence. We demand support, as otherwise these people held now in Belarus will get killed by the regime" - she added. "We can longer stay silent, a minute of screaming is all we have left" - Shostak said and raised a scream in front of the Belarusian Embassy.

"We've been waiting nearly 10 months for firm action by the EU and the West. We're very grateful to the Polish nation for solidarity and support in those 10 months. It (The Polish nation) supported, supports and will support. We thank the Polish government, Polish political parties, which despite political divisions stood in defence of the Belarusian people" - head of the Belarusian House foundation in Warsaw Aleś Zarembiuk said.

According to him, "9,5 million Belarusians have now been taken hostage, but it doesn't mean we're lying down and only waiting for the EU and the West to save us". "Despite the lack of support, guerilla actions are continuing. Flags are being hanged out despite the unprecedented wave of repressions" - he added.

He also stressed that further sanctions were needed, also against Russia which "keeps on supporting this rotten regime hated by the Belarusian people".

Belarus journalist Roman Protasevich detained after his plane was forced to land in Minsk, had been flying to Vilnius from Athens, where he had attended an economic forum to hear a Belarus opposition leader speak.

Twenty-six year old Protasevich, was arrested on Sunday (May 23) after a Belarusian warplane intercepted his Ryanair flight between Greece and Lithuania and forced it to land in Minsk.

Protasevich's social media feed from exile has been one of the last remaining independent outlets for news about the country since a mass crackdown on dissent last year.

Protasevich had attended the Delphi Economic Forum in Athens, a week long forum attended by politicians and academics to discuss current issues around politics and the economy.

Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanouskaya spoke at the forum on May 14 at the Athens Zappeion Conference Hall. The opposition leader discussed the difficulties faced by the opposition in the country and the protest movement that sprouted from last year's election result.

"For 26 years our country lives under dictatorship and there is always a sense of fear among Belarusians, but a lot has happened the last three years, a new generation grew up, new generation that understands that we want to develop our country, we don't want to live in this instability anymore," she said during the discussion.

"People started to go out for demonstrations not only for fraudulent elections but against violence, against torture in our country and since then our resistance is continuing, and regime is responding only with violence, they are using this leverage, of torture, of humiliation to calm down people, to silence people, but people are not giving up, people continue to resist under these difficult circumstances, they have to be creative in fighting this regime but they will not stop," she added.

Tikhanouskaya said sanctions were effective in putting pressure on the Belarus government but the protest movement also needed support from other countries.

"People are afraid to leave - get out to the streets, people are afraid to leave their apartments, people are suffering in jails. And sanctions is the most powerful leverage to put pressure on the regime, and at the moment the European Union, and the USA, and other democratic countries can help based on three pillars - first of all its pressure on the regime - political isolation, economic isolation. Second its assistance and solidarity - support civil society. Everybody is under pressure in Belarus - journalists, students, workers, medics, like everyone, and everybody needs this support from democratic countries."

The EU has already imposed three rounds of sanctions on Belarus in response to last year's contested presidential election there, and even before the Ryanair incident it had been working on a fourth round targeting senior officials.

Additional sanctions could now include suspending overflights of all EU airlines over Belarus, banning Belarusian airline Belavia from landing at EU airports or suspending all transit, including ground transit, from Belarus to the EU, according to an official for the bloc.

Western politicians accused Belarus on Monday of state piracy amounting to a "warlike act" over the Ryanair incident.