AWAKENING OF BELARUS

by | 19 Feb 2021 | MiddleGround Journal

By Iva Zimova

A woman waves a red and white flag, adopted by the Belarusian opposition, from the window of an apartment block high above massed crowds of demonstrators who have come onto the streets to voice their opposition to the 2020 presidential election result, the Belarusian government, and above all President Alexander Lukashenko.

The first time I visited Belarus was in 2007. I was photographing activists and dissidents for the Czech non-profit organization People in Need. Even then, thousands of people, mostly students, were protesting against the Lukashenko regime that had taken power in what many Western governments believed was a rigged election in March, 2006.

An activist holds a sign that reads: Leave (ukhadi) during a rally on Indeoendent Squar. More than 100,00 protesters hold mass rally in Minsk demanding the resignation of Belarus’’ authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko.

Then I forgot about Belarus. As the 2020 presidential election was  approaching, I had the feeling that this time Lukashenko, who had been  in power for 26 years, would not be able to continue to be the sixth President of Belarus. 

A protestor holds a photo of the bruised bodies of demonstrators who were detained and repeatedly beaten by the police in their crackdown on post -election anti-Lukashenko protests.

I applied for press accreditation at the beginning of June. Like all journalists who applied for short-term accreditation, I was not successful, despite constant calls to the commission that decides on accreditation.

People carry the coffin of Nikita Krivco. Nikita waved a red and white flag, adopted by the Belarusian opposition, in front of Security forces during protests that erupted following the presidential election that was widely perceived as rigged in favour of Alexander Lukashenko. Then Nikita disappeared. His badly beaten body was found hanging in a forest park on Parnikovaya Street ten days later, on 22 August 2020.

On August 9, I observed  the presidential election in front of the Belarusian embassy in Prague, where over 500 Belarusians who live in the Czech Republic came to elect their president. The queue was very long, the Summer temperature was in the 30s, and the line moved slowly – people were waiting between five and seven hours to cast their vote. Out of 500 people, only 200 managed to vote.

The mother of Nikita Krivcov weeps over his flag-draped coffin at his funeral. Krivtsov disappeared after the 12 August 2020 protests that erupted following the presidential election that was widely perceived as rigged in favour of Alexander Lukashenko. His badly beaten body was found hanging in a forest park on Parnikovaya Street ten days later, on 22 August 2020.

In the votes from the Czech Republic, the opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya won. Tikhanovskaya took up the candidacy when opposition candidates, including her husband Sergei Tikhanovsky, a blogger, were jailed or forced into exile ahead of the elections. 

White flowers, placed in a sculpture’s arm, symbolize the earlier women’s march against police brutality.

The Belarus Central Election Commission declared the incumbent president Aleksandr Lukashenko the winner of the election, with 80.08% of the vote. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya received 10.09%. It was clear that the elections were falsified. People took to the streets of Belarus to protest, as they had in preceding elections. Riot police, known as OMON, also took to the streets, trying to stop demonstrations by brutal violence.

Svetlana Alexievich surrounded by journalists as she prepares to attend a Committee of Inquiry where she had been summoned for questioning. Svetlana Alexievich is a member of the Presidium – the ‘Coordination Council’ that was formed by the Opposition to oversee a peaceful transition of power following the presidential elections that were generally considered as rigged in favour of Alex- ander Lukashenko.

Somewhat naively, I still hoped that I would get press accreditation. After weeks of waiting, I decided that even without accreditation, I would fly to Minsk, the capital of Belarus. The day before my departure, 22 non-accredited journalists were not allowed to enter to Belarus. I decided to try my luck anyway.

I arrived the day before the second Sunday demonstration against the elections, which brought together over 200,000 Belarusians, demanding free and fair elections and that Belarus  be free of the last dictator in Europe.

  • A woman protestor holds a photo of Lukashenko displaying the year he became president and the year when she thinks he should step down.
  • More than 100,000 protesters were involved in the rally in central Minsk, demanding the resignation of the authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko and the implementation of a multi-party political system.
  • Security forces in riot gear block a road into the city centre to stop democracy activists opposing the Lukashenko government gathering for a protest.

Zimova lives for her photography and uses her manifested talent in the service of the persecuted and the forgotten – born in former Czechoslovakia, Iva graduated from the School of Industrial Art in Jablonec nad Nisou. In 1982 she emigrated to Canada where she studied at the Dawson College Institute of Photography, and then continued her study at Concordia University. See more of her work http://ivazimova.com/portfolio/