Ales Bialiatski: "These words are not for me alone"
Ales Bialiatski at trial. Photo by European Radio for Belarus
The imprisoned head of the Human Rights
Center "Viasna" Ales Bialiatski keeps receiving letters and
postcards from all over the world. Though the holiday fuss is already
over, sometimes he receives as many as 100 letters a day. The
geographical spread of the authors is still impressive – Poland,
Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg,
Austria, Czech, Island, USA, Ireland, Canada, Japan, Turkey, Kenya
and so on.
Some people accurately copy the words "Алесь,
я думаю пра цябе, я жадаю табе дабра!"
("Ales, I am thinking of you, I wish you well!", proposed
by "Amnesty International" within the framework of the
solidarity campaign. Others write these words in their own languages.
There are also people
who say more, share their own vision of his
situation or cheer him up.
"Hollie from Edinburgh
(Canada) wrote that 1/3rd of the cases dealt with by "Amnesty
International" end up positively. That's where I started
reflecting: "does my case belong to this lucky 1/3rd or the
unlucky 2/3rds? I don't know, the time will show," writes Ales
and continues looking for sources for optimism in order letters. "I
received a postcard from Kenya, from relatives and some guys who I
know quite well. I remember one of them since the time he was three
year old... To be on the safe side, they wrote the address as:
EUROPE, BELARUS. Maybe this is well-justified in Africa. But it looks
quite symbolic, Belarus in Europe. We still need to get conscious
about it and understand it."
"I know quite a lot
about your situation. Several days ago I organized the "Belarusian
Days" in the Lodz University. We, students, held a discussion
about You and Your struggle for human rights... Please, be strong!",
quotes Ales a letter from Marta, a student from the Polish city of
Zgesz. And then confesses: "To be sincere, I feel uncanny when
reading such letters. It always seems that it is not for me and not
about me. By quoting them I feel at ease. I think, moreover, I am
convinced that now these words sound not for me alone."
Ales
Bialiatski has repeatedly emphasized in his letters that the words of
solidarity he keeps receiving from abroad are the words of support to
all Belarusians.
