Simon Ostrovsky: Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital. It's just
20 miles from the border with authoritarian Belarus to the east. But this EU
member state might as well be on another planet.
Artyom: Ok, here’s the plan…
Vidas: You walk down the road
and look for a black car.
Simon Ostrovsky: Artyom, who’s name we’ve changed, is a
smuggler. He helps dissidents wanted by the belarusian
regime, over the new iron curtain that surrounds Belarus in the aftermath of
last year’s contested election that led to sweeping protests and a brutal
crackdown.
Artyom: Don’t rush so you don’t make any noise.
You only start running if you see that you are being chased.
Dzimitry Lisychik: Understood.
Artyom: Ok.
Simon Ostrovsky: Today, he’s coordinating the escape of
two protestors wanted by police who face lengthy prison sentences. He’s allowed
NewsHour Weekend to record his remote meeting with one of them, 20-year old Dzmitry Lisichyk who’s been hiding from the authorities in Belarus
for over a month.
Lithuania is now home to
over 2,000 political exiles from Belarus who’ve fled
the regime, including Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya,
believed by many to have won a widely contested presidential election last
August. An election that her husband had planned to run in but who was instead
arrested ahead of the vote and remains in prison to this day.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: This understanding that my husband is suffering, that thousands
of people are being tortured in jail turns into energy that don’t
let me stop and I’m doing what I can on my place, the same as every person in
Belarus or who is in exile doing what they can.
Simon Ostrovsky: Lisichyk, who is accused of organizing partisan activities, hopes to join
the ranks of those who are in exile, but he’ll have to evade belarusian border patrols and walk
through thick forest in a segment of the border that isn’t fenced off
first.
Dzimitry Lisychik: I
feel like I have to be composed and careful, but I’m
not scared. I’m not about to stick my head in the sand.
No good will come out of the fact that I’ll land in
jail here, or in the ground, or into a wheelchair.
Simon Ostrovsky: Belarus’ other neighbors have also taken in thousands of refugees
over the course of the last year as the regime of Alexander Lukashenko
imprisoned over 550 people who spoke out against an election they believe was
rigged in his favor.
Press Club Belarus is a
media organization that’s fled to Poland after its founder Yulia Slutskaya and three other staff members were jailed on reports
of trumped up tax charges. Now it’s celebrating its ten year anniversary in exile.
Natasha Belikova: We
are Press Club Belarus, and unfortunately we are still
without Yulia. And we really hope that Yulia will be able to join us sooner
than we think and be able to celebrate this birthday with us.
Simon Ostrovsky: Natasha Belikova has stepped in as
acting director while founder Yulia Slutskaya awaits
trial.
Natasha Belikova: Currently,
26 journalists are imprisoned in Belarus for doing their job. Some, like my
colleagues, they're awaiting trial to begin. Others
have already been through trial, like two journalists from Belsat,
and they have been sentenced to two years of imprisonment for simply doing
their job for reporting from a rally. [00:07:37][00:07:49]
the number of jailed journalists is growing, and no journalist can feel safe at
the moment being in Belarus.
Simon Ostrovsky: Lukashenko has been willing to go to extreme lengths to retain his
grip on power.
Alexander Lukashenko: Our enemies from outside and inside the country have changed
their methods of attacking the state. In the near future
we will show you and society as a whole, everything they have said, including
those who have recently been arrested.
Simon Ostrovsky: In May, a commercial passenger jet flying from
Greece to Lithuania was diverted to Belarus, after Minsk air traffic control
reported a possible bomb threat on board. The goal was to arrest this man. His
crime? Running a popular online chat group that organized protests
against Lukashenko's regime.
Like many detainees, he
was paraded on state television and forced to make a confession.
Raman Pratasevich: I
just hope that I’ll be able to fix everything and live
a normal life. Start a family, kids. Stop running from something, I’m sorry.
Simon Ostrovsky: A confession that was presumably coerced, given the bruises on his
wrists.
But Belarusian
dissidents are determined to go to lengths that are no less extreme in order to get out of the country.
Like Andrey Susha. In the spring of last year
the authorities charged him over an online post critical of police officials
and coerced a confession; he decided to turn а hobby into an exit plan.
Police official: He came under the influence of destructive Тelegram
channels and wrote an offensive comment.
Andrey Susha: I apologize for my
actions and am remorseful for what I did.
Simon Ostrovsky: He faced up to 4 years in prison for the charges stemming from the
post in which he called a police officer a bastard.
But after making his confession, officials added another charge, “threatening
police officers,” which carries an additional 5 year
maximum sentence.
Andrey Susha: I’m a parachutist, I’ve
jumped around 1,300 times. I love aviation and two years ago I purchased this
paraglider and started flying with it, just for fun.
Simon Ostrovsky: Susha decided to turn а hobby into an exit plan.
Andrey Susha: I decided to run. I flew
into Lithuania and landed, I walked over to the nearest house and asked them to
call the police. They called them out and I said, “that’s it, I’m giving myself
up, I want asylum.” That’s how I ended up here.
Simon Ostrovsky: Facing a growing migrant crisis on their borders, Lithuanian and
EU officials have been alarmed by what is taking place in Belarus. but Deputy
Foreign Minister Mantas Adomenas told NewsHour
Weekend his government was sympathetic to the plight of Belarusian asylum
seekers.
Mantas Adomenas: I cannot condone. But can not in any way
blame them, because, you know, when you're faced with
this kind of fury of this mad regime, you will want to get out one way or the
other.
Simon Ostrovsky: Tsikhanaouskaya, the leader of the opposition movement, told NewsHour Weekend
that she was grateful for the sanctions imposed on belarus
by the EU and the United States but urged the international community
to do more to help Belarusians caught up in the crackdown.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: Our end goal is organization of new elections in Belarus, free and
transparent, under observation of international organizations. But of course,
before this, our task is to release all political prisoners, So
this is step by step. We have to put pressure on the
regime inside the country, outside the country to start this dialog to release
political prisoners.
Simon Ostrovsky: Remember Dzimitry Lisychik
who we saw earlier in a video conference call planning his escape from Belarus?
We’re headed to an undisclosed location just a mile
from the Belarusian border where he is planning to cross by foot. Smugglers on
the Belarusian side have told us the approximate hour that he’s
due to depart and we calculate that he should arrive by 1 am.
By 2 am we start to
worry that something’s gone wrong. Border patrols on
the Belarusian side have been increased due to the high number of illegal
crossings. Another nail biting hour passes. Then,
finally he emerges from the darkness.
Dzimitry Lisychik: Greetings!
Simon Ostrovsky: Welcome to Lithuania!
Simon Ostrovsky: So this is everything that Dmitry
brought with him. Just one backpack. He’s wearing all
black clothing and his entire waist down is wet from walking across a canal to
get here to the lithuanian side. Now we’re just making sure that his documents that he’s going to
need in order to be able to get asylum here, haven’t got wet.
Soon, a Lithuanian
border patrol arrives, after equipping Dzmitry with
PPE, he makes his claim for asylum.
Border guard: What is the purpose of your arrival here?
Dzimitry Lisychik: I want political asylum.
Simon Ostrovsky: Lisychik’s journey has ended, but thousands of other Belarusians remain in
hiding and more than 500 are being held as political prisoners. Without
concerted outside pressure on the regime and its backer Russia, those behind
bars are likely to remain there indefinitely and those seeking asylum will only
add to Europe's growing new migrant crisis.
###
|
TIMECODE |
LOWER
THIRD |
1 |
0:13 |
“ARTYOM” SMUGGLER |
2 |
1:26 |
SVIATLANA TSIKHANOUSKAYA POLITICIAN |
3 |
1:54 |
BELARUS-LITHUANIA BORDER |
4 |
1:58 |
DZMITRY LISICHYK ACTIVIST |
5 |
2:32 |
NATASHA BELIKOV PRESS CLUB BELARUS |
6 |
3:40 |
PRESIDENT ALEXANDER LUKACHENKO BELARUS |
7 |
4:26 |
RAMAN PRATASEVICH ACTIVIST |
8 |
5:19 |
ANDREI SUSHA ASYLUM SEEKER |
9 |
6:33 |
MANTAS ADOMENAS LITHUANIAN VICE FOREIGN MINISTER |
10 |
7:00 |
SVIATLANA TSIKHANOUSKAYA POLITICIAN |
11 |
7:50 |
LITHUANIA-BELARUS BORDER SIMON OSTROVSKY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT |