[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 158 (Monday, September 14, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5573-S5574]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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SENATE RESOLUTION 689--CONDEMNING THE CRACKDOWN ON PEACEFUL PROTESTORS 
 IN BELARUS AND CALLING FOR THE IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS ON RESPONSIBLE 
                               OFFICIALS

  Mr. RISCH (for himself, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Rubio, Mr. 
Durbin, Mr. Graham, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Romney, Mr. Coons, 
Mr. Johnson, Mr. Portman, and Mr. Kaine) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 689

       Whereas Alyaksandr Lukashenka has ruled Belarus as an 
     undemocratic dictatorship since the first presidential 
     election in Belarus in 1994;
       Whereas subsequent presidential elections in Belarus have 
     been neither free nor fair and have been rejected by the 
     international community as not meeting minimal electoral 
     standards, with the jailing of opposition activists 
     frequently used as a tool of government repression before and 
     after the elections;
       Whereas, in response to the repression and violence during 
     the 2006 presidential election, Congress passed the Belarus 
     Democracy Reauthorization Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-480);
       Whereas, in March 2011, the Senate unanimously passed 
     Senate Resolution 105, which--
       (1) condemned the December 2010 election in Belarus as 
     ``illegitimate, fraudulent, and not representative of the 
     will or the aspirations of the voters in Belarus''; and
       (2) called on the Lukashenka regime ``to immediately and 
     unconditionally release all political prisoners in Belarus 
     who were arrested in association with the December 19, 2010, 
     election'';
       Whereas, in advance of the August 2020 presidential 
     elections in Belarus, authorities acting on behalf of 
     President Lukashenka arrested journalists, bloggers, 
     political activists, and opposition leaders, including three 
     leading presidential candidates (Syarhey Tsikhanouski, 
     Mikalay Statkevich, and Viktar Babaryka), who were barred 
     from running in the election by the Central Election 
     Commission of the Republic of Belarus;
       Whereas, while the three opposition candidates were 
     imprisoned, two of their wives and one of their campaign 
     managers, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Veranika Tsepkala, and 
     Maria Kalesnikava, joined together and ran in place of the 
     candidates;
       Whereas thousands of Belarusian people demonstrated their 
     support for these candidates by attending rallies, including 
     one rally that included an estimated 63,000 participants;
       Whereas, on August, 5, 2020, the Senate unanimously passed 
     Senate Resolution 658, which calls for a free, fair, and 
     transparent presidential election in Belarus, including the 
     unimpeded participation of all presidential candidates;

[[Page S5574]]

       Whereas presidential elections were held in Belarus on 
     August 9, 2020, under undemocratic conditions with reports of 
     malfeasance on the part of Lukashenka's government, including 
     early voting ballot stuffing, ballot burning, pressuring poll 
     workers, and removing bags full of ballots by climbing out of 
     windows;
       Whereas incumbent president Alyaksandr Lukashenka declared 
     a landslide victory in the election and claimed to have 
     received more than 80 percent of the votes cast in the 
     election;
       Whereas the leading opposition candidate, Sviatlana 
     Tsikhanouskaya--
       (1) formally disputed the government's reported election 
     results;
       (2) explained that her staff had examined the election 
     results from more than 50 polling places; and
       (3) found that her share of the vote exceeded Lukashenka's 
     share by many times;
       Whereas, on August 10, 2020, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was 
     detained while attending a meeting with the Central Election 
     Commission of the Republic of Belarus and forced to flee to 
     Lithuania under pressure from government authorities;
       Whereas, on August 11, 2020, Lithuanian Foreign Minister 
     Linas Linkevicius announced that Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was 
     safe in Lithuania and has continued to be 1 of the strongest 
     voices supporting the pro-democracy movement in Belarus 
     within the European Union and globally;
       Whereas, on August 11, 2020, the European Union High 
     Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep 
     Borrell, issued a declaration on the presidential election in 
     Belarus stating that the elections were neither free nor 
     fair;
       Whereas, on August 18, 2020, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya 
     announced the formation of a Coordination Council to oversee 
     a resolution to the crisis in Belarus and a peaceful 
     transition of power;
       Whereas, on August 19, 2020, European Council President 
     Charles Michel announced that the European Union would impose 
     sanctions on a substantial number of individuals responsible 
     for violence, repression, and election fraud in Belarus;
       Whereas, on August 28, 2020, United States Deputy Secretary 
     of State Stephen Biegun declared that the August 9th election 
     in Belarus was fraudulent;
       Whereas, since the sham election on August 9, 2020, tens of 
     thousands of Belarusian citizens have participated in daily 
     peaceful protests calling for a new, free, and fair election, 
     and the release of political prisoners;
       Whereas according to Amnesty International, on August 30, 
     2020, Belarusians held one of the largest protest rallies in 
     the country's modern history in Minsk and in other cities, 
     which was attended by at least 100,000 people who demanded 
     the resignation of President Lukashenka and an investigation 
     into the human rights violations in Belarus;
       Whereas women have played a leading role in the protests, 
     including by forming peaceful solidarity chains of thousands 
     of Belarusians symbolically dressed in white;
       Whereas more than 7,000 Belarusian citizens have been 
     detained by government authorities, mostly for taking part in 
     or observing peaceful protests, with many of these arrests 
     followed by beatings and torture at the hands of Belarusian 
     law enforcement;
       Whereas authorities in Belarus have consistently restricted 
     press freedom as part of the crackdown, including--
       (1) the arrest of dozens of journalists, six of whom report 
     for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty;
       (2) blocking more than 50 news websites that were covering 
     the protests;
       (3) halting the publishing of two independent newspapers; 
     and
       (4) stripping the accreditation of journalists working for 
     foreign news outlets;
       Whereas internet access in Belarus has been repeatedly 
     disrupted and restricted since August 9, 2020, which 
     independent experts and monitoring groups have attributed to 
     government interference;
       Whereas after employees of state media outlets walked off 
     the job in protest rather than help report misleading 
     government propaganda, Lukashenka confirmed that he ``asked 
     the Russians'' to send teams of Russian journalists to 
     replace local employees;
       Whereas Lukashenka appealed to Russian President Vladimir 
     Putin to provide security assistance to his government, if 
     requested, and Putin confirmed that a reserve police force 
     was ready to be deployed if ``the situation gets out of 
     control'';
       Whereas the Belarus Ministry of Defense threatened to send 
     the army to confront protestors, warning that in case of any 
     violation of peace and order in areas around national 
     monuments, ``you will have the army to deal with now, not the 
     police'';
       Whereas, according to the Viasna Human Rights Centre, at 
     least 450 detainees have reported being tortured or otherwise 
     ill-treated while held in incommunicado detention for up to 
     10 days, including through--
       (1) severe beatings;
       (2) forced performance of humiliating acts; and
       (3) sexual violence and other forms of violence;
       Whereas at least four Belarusians have been killed at 
     protests, and dozens of Belarusians who were detained during 
     the protests are still missing;
       Whereas, on or around September 6, 2020, the opposition 
     leader, Maria Kalesnikava, and members of the Coordination 
     Council, including Anton Ronenkov, Ivan Kravtsov, and Maxim 
     Bogretsov, were detained by authorities who sought to 
     forcibly expel them to Ukraine;
       Whereas opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova tore up her 
     passport at the Ukrainian border in a successful effort to 
     prevent this expulsion, subsequently disappeared, and was 
     discovered in a Minsk prison on September 9, 2020;
       Whereas the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
     Rights, done at New York December 19, 1966, was ratified by 
     Belarus in 1973, guaranteeing Belarusians the freedom of 
     expression and the freedom of association; and
       Whereas, in 2006, President George W. Bush issued Executive 
     Order 13405, titled ``Blocking Property of Certain Persons 
     Undermining Democratic Processes or Institutions in 
     Belarus'', which authorized the imposition of sanctions 
     against persons responsible for--
       (1) undermining democratic processes in Belarus; or
       (2) participating in human rights abuses related to 
     political repression in Belarus:
       Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) finds that--
       (A) the elections held in Belarus on August 9, 2020, were 
     neither free nor fair; and
       (B) the results announced by the Central Election 
     Commission of the Republic of Belarus are invalid;
       (2) stands in solidarity with the people of Belarus, 
     including human rights defenders, bloggers, and journalists, 
     who are exercising their right to freedom of assembly, 
     freedom of expression, and rule of law;
       (3) recognizes the leading role of women in the peaceful 
     protests and pro-democracy movement in Belarus;
       (4) condemns the unrelenting crackdown on, arbitrary 
     arrests of, and violence against peaceful protesters, 
     opposition leaders, human rights activists, and independent 
     media by authorities in Belarus;
       (5) condemns the unjustified detention and forced or 
     attempted expulsion of members of the Coordination Council in 
     Belarus;
       (6) demands the release of all political prisoners and 
     those arrested for peacefully protesting, including those 
     arrested before the August 9, 2020 election;
       (7) applauds the commitment by foreign diplomats in Minsk 
     to engage with Coordination Council member and Nobel 
     Laureate, Svetlana Alexievich, and encourages an ongoing 
     dialogue with her and with other leaders of the 
     democratically-oriented political opposition in Belarus;
       (8) calls on the Government of Belarus to uphold its human 
     rights obligations, including those enumerated in the 
     International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
       (9) calls on the United States Government to impose 
     targeted sanctions, in coordination with the European Union 
     and other international partners, against officials in 
     Belarus who are responsible for--
       (A) undermining democratic processes in Belarus; or
       (B) participating in human rights abuses related to 
     political repression in Belarus;
       (10) encourages the United States Government to continue 
     working with its partners in Europe, particularly the 
     Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, to 
     support the people of Belarus; and
       (11) supports--
       (A) the continued territorial integrity of Belarus; and
       (B) the right of the Belarusian people to determine their 
     future.

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