Belarus opposition pleads for recognition
Status as `government in exile'
OTTAWA • Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya asked Canada to support her efforts to create a government in exile, calling it a democratic alternative to the regime of Belarus President and Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko.
Speaking virtually at an Ottawa defence and security conference Thursday, Tsikhanouskaya said Belarusians “do not want to take part in Russian aggressions.”
Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994 and leads an authoritarian government, has allowed Russia to use his country as a staging ground for its invasion of Ukraine.
Tsikhanouskaya said she is putting together a transitional cabinet, made up of people both inside and in exile from Belarus. “We will be seeking support from Canada for it. You can treat it as the government in exile,” she said.
Tsikhanouskaya ran as the opposition candidate to Lukashenko in 2020, following the arrest of her husband after he put himself forward as a candidate.
After the election, officials claimed Lukashenko won the election with 80 per cent of the vote. Tsikhanouskaya fled to Lithuania and has been in exile since. International monitors have said that election was not free or fair and Canada, as well as the European Union, the U.K., and U.S., has refused to recognize Lukashenko as the legitimate president.
Tsikhanouskaya told the Ottawa conference that it is “crucial to distinguish” between Lukashenko “and the regime responsible for the war, and the society of Belarus that is helping Ukrainians.”
“The dictator allowed Russia to use our lands to attack Ukraine,” she said. Lukashenko not only “backstabbed Ukrainians, but he also put into jeopardy the very existence of the Belarusian state.”
That means Russia currently controls decisions on defence, national security and foreign affairs, among others, and “Belarus is under de-facto Russian occupation.”
Belarusians don't “want their country to become a pariah state following the Kremlin's madness,” she said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has described Russia as the “aggressor” and Belarus as the “enabler” in the war on Ukraine.
Tsikhanouskaya said there is opposition to the war in Belarus. Thousands “found the courage to protest openly,” despite the risk of arrest. Others have repeatedly attacked railways to slow down the transport of Russian forces, in order to give Ukrainians more time to repel the attack, she said, and reported information about Russian planes to Ukraine in order to give them early warning.
“Civil society which worked during the last two years for advancing democracy in Belarus quickly switched its focus on Ukraine,” she said.
Under Lukashenko's regime, Belarusians “have no opportunity to express their political views or to influence the government in any way. Therefore, they cannot share the responsibility for the decisions of a regime that is owned and controlled by the Kremlin,” she said.
She called on democratic countries to apply a “regime of non-recognition” when it comes to Lukashenko's government, and for strong sanctions to be applied.
Canada has levied sanctions against Belarus since 2020 in response to human rights violations by the government. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Canada announced additional sanctions against 19 individuals and 25 entities, targeting “government and financial elites, oligarchs and their family members and associates, as well as entities involved in Belarus' financial, potash, energy, tobacco and defence sectors.”
Tsikhanouskaya said the world should ensure its sanctions don't allow Russia to use Belarus as a loophole. That means measures such as extending the ban on the SWIFT banking system to more Belarusian state banks.
“Our message here is, weaken the regime and strengthen the people. Hit them where it hurts.”
The fates of Belarus and Ukraine are interconnected, she argued. “History will judge us, not for our words, but for our deeds, and history will show whether the world united in defence of freedom or democracy, or whether we allowed oppression to win because we acted too late or too little.”
WEAKEN THE REGIME AND STRENGTHEN THE PEOPLE. HIT THEM WHERE IT HURTS.