Poland and Baltic states issue joint statement 3 years after rigged presidential election in Belarus

Mass demonstrations took place after the Belarusian long-standing head of state Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, a result which the opposition and Western countries said was fraudulent.

Thousands of people were detained during protests after the election. U.N. human rights investigators said at the time they had received reports of hundreds of cases of torture, beatings and mistreatment. The Belarusian government denied abusing detainees.

"Three years ago, on 9 August 2020, Alexander Lukashenko proclaimed himself the winner of the rigged presidential election, thereby trampling on the democratic aspirations and rights of the Belarusian people. This criminal seizure of power by the illegitimate regime has since resulted in massive internal repression, complicity in the war crimes and the crime of aggression, rapid erosion of Belarus’ sovereignty, as well as destabilization of the region," the Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish foreign ministers said in a joint statement released on Wednesday to mark the third anniversary of the fraudulent Belarusian election.

"The massive electoral fraud has sparked unprecedented wave of peaceful protests by the Belarusian people who demanded the freedom to choose their future. In response, the Belarusian authorities unleashed a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters and their supporters," they added.

"For three years now, notwithstanding the firm condemnation by the international community, the Lukashenko’s regime continues its steadily worsening inhumane repression. Human rights defenders, journalists, trade unionists, media workers, lawyers and ordinary citizens who express criticism of the system are labelled extremists and terrorists, persecuted, blackmailed, imprisoned; several have disappeared or been killed in the government's attempts to crush resistance to its illegitimate rule," the statement said.

"National minorities’ organisations are likewise repressed, while the schools teaching in the national minority languages have been closed down. Political prisoners, whose number increased to 1,500, are subjected to inhumane treatment and even torture, while many are held isolated from any communication for months. The remaining activists were forced to leave the country to avoid unjustified persecution," the ministers reminded.

They also mentioned that "the Lukashenko regime has been acting as an accomplice and direct supporter of Russia's unprovoked and unjustified aggression against Ukraine". "Ignoring the will of the vast majority of the Belarusian people, the regime grants Moscow full political and logistical support, allows it to use the Belarusian territory as a launchpad for its missiles, for the deployment of nuclear weapons, and recently accepted to host thousands of criminal Wagner mercenaries on its soil. Furthermore, Lukashenko’s regime is accomplice in the forced deportations of Ukrainian children, thus being directly complicit in the war crime to be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court," we read.

"While Minsk regime cares only about its own survival, it continues to erode Belarus’ statehood, illegitimately and illegally, in contravention to the Belarusian people’s will, ceding its sovereignty to Russia. Also, during these last three years, Belarus has been made into a true hotbed of destabilisation in the heart of Europe and poses an increasing threat to the international security. Lukashenko regime in Belarus continues to organise and contribute to activities that facilitate illegal crossing of the EU's external borders of third country nationals," the ministers of foreign affairs said.

The authors of the statement underscored they continued to stay with the Belarusian people at "this particularly painful moment in Belarusian history", "staying true to the commitment expressed in the historic motto 'For our Freedom and Yours'". "We believe in democratic, independent, and sovereign Belarus, as much as we believe in the victory of Ukraine. Our support to the people of Belarus, struggling for their freedom and dignity, will remain unwavering. We will continue supporting the democratic forces of Belarus, its leadership as well as other representatives of the civil society that rally in pursuit of democratic changes in Belarus."

The foreign minister finally said that "authoritarian regimes will fail, and the tyrants will be brought to justice". "We reiterate our call for the immediate and unconditional release and rehabilitation of all political prisoners, for the cessation of repressions and of complicity in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. While the repressions, breaches of international law, ongoing instrumentalisation of migration or other crimes persist, we will continue isolating the criminal and illegitimate Lukashenko’s regime and strengthening the EU’s targeted and sectorial sanctions against it."

The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs also published Minister Zbigniew Rau’s address marking the third anniversary of the fraudulent presidential elections in Belarus.