[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 667-669]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            BULLY OF BELARUS

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, during the recent 2-week recess, I was 
invited to speak to the Parliament of the nation of Lithuania in the 
capital of Vilnius. It was a great honor. This country holds a special 
place in my family. My mother was born in Lithuania. One hundred years 
ago this year, my grandmother brought her, her brother, and sister to 
America. My mother was 2 years old. They landed in Baltimore, and 
somehow our family found its way to meet up with my grandfather in East 
St. Louis, IL, where a lot of Lithuanian immigrants were coming to take 
jobs--hard, manual labor jobs, which immigrants took in those days and 
still do--manual labor jobs that gave them a chance they did not have 
in the old country.
  I was asked to speak to the Parliament on the occasion of the 20th 
anniversary of what has come to be known as bloody Sunday. It recalls 
the time, 20 years ago, when Mikhail Gorbachev, as head of the Soviet 
Union, made his last, desperate, violent effort to stop Lithuania from 
breaking away from the Soviet Union.
  I recall that period because I followed it closely as a Member of 
Congress. You can still see some details of what life was like in 
Lithuania under the Soviets. The old police headquarters, the KGB 
headquarters, has been preserved as a museum--basically, a horror 
museum to show and catalog the torture and killings that took place 
during Soviet rule.
  In February 1990, the people of this tiny nation on the Baltic 
decided they had had enough. They swept the ruling Communist Party out 
of power in an open parliamentary election. A month later in March 
1990, the new Parliament voted 124 to 0 to restore the country's 
independence. They were the first Soviet Republic to do so. It was 
bold. It was historic. That is when Gorbachev turned the screws. He 
ordered Soviet tanks and paratroopers to stop the breakaway effort of 
Lithuania.
  In the early morning hours of January 13, 1991, 14 Lithuanians, just 
regular people, common people in the country, were killed and as many 
as 1,000 were rounded up by those the Economist magazine described as 
the ``bullies of Vilnius.''
  The crackdown failed. By August of 1991, Lithuania had won its 
independence again.
  Today, because of the brave efforts of those ordinary Lithuanians, it 
is a free country, it is democratic, chair of the Community of 
Democracies, is a member of the European Union, and one of America's 
allies in NATO.
  Imagine my surprise at what I saw during a stop in the neighboring 
country of Belarus. I saw a step back into Soviet times, a step back 
into the barbarism we found in the KGB Museum in Lithuania. Sadly, 
though, this was not a museum show. It was real life.
  Often known as the last dictatorship of Europe, Belarus has defied 
the democratic transformations that have swept across Europe following 
the collapse of the Soviet Union. The country has been ruled with an 
iron fist for most of the last few decades by a strongman, Alexander 
Lukashenko. In Lukashenko's two-decade-old totalitarian nightmare, 
opposition figures--anybody who had courage to step up and defy him--
had been subjected to harsh repression and imprisonment. Over the 
years, those who might have been alternatives to Lukashenko in any 
election have disappeared or have been thrown in jail.

[[Page 668]]

  In fact, Lukashenko proudly still calls his police force the KGB.
  In recent years, there was a glimmer of hope that perhaps Lukashenko 
was going to move away from his dictatorship. A Presidential election 
was scheduled for last December 19, one that some hoped would finally 
meet the most minimum international standards for democracy.
  Those hopes were dashed when Lukashenko quickly claimed another term 
as President amid elections described by international monitors as 
seriously flawed. He ended up with 80 percent of the vote and said that 
was a good indication that it was a real election. He did not get 99 
percent, as usual.
  Lukashenko ordered his KGB thugs to brutally suppress opposition 
candidates, activists, and supporters who gathered in protest on 
election night in Independence Square in downtown Minsk in the nation 
of Belarus on December 19, last year. Six of the seven political 
opponents who ran against Lukashenko and more than 600 of their 
followers were arrested. Several of the Presidential candidates who are 
being held incommunicado still today face charges that can carry up to 
15 years in jail. Their crime? They ran against him and they lost. They 
get to go to jail now.
  Since then, Lukashenko's KGB has continued daily raids on the homes 
and offices of those with suspected ties to democratic parties and 
organizations, human rights organizations, and what remains of the 
independent media in Belarus.
  Lukashenko has ignored election monitor reports questioning the 
credibility of the election and international demands to release all 
these political prisoners. He has pulled the country further into 
isolation and made it the subject of international scorn.
  He follows the old Soviet playbook. His government has tried to blame 
outside forces in other countries, everyone but himself, for the 
shameful political mess he has created.
  I was in Minsk last week, and I met with Sergey Martynov, who is the 
Foreign Minister to Lukashenko. He pleaded with me to give his ``new 
democracy'' credit, new democracy in Belarus. He said: Senator, you 
live in a country that has had democracy for 200 years; we have only 
had it for 20 years. He said: Give us credit. When we arrested all 
these people--including seven of the people who ran against him--we 
didn't use tear gas. There were no rubber bullets, no police dogs. Give 
us credit, he said.
  No, I said, you didn't use those tools, but you systematically 
arrested and threw into jail everybody who ran against you. That is not 
even close to democracy.
  I had the chance to meet with some of the family members of those who 
are in jail. I could not help but think that just a few hours before I 
had been in Lithuania, a 3-hour drive from Minsk in Belarus, where 20 
years ago ordinary people, such as these families, stepped up and said: 
We are willing to fight for freedom. Fourteen of them lost their lives 
and 1,000 were injured--just ordinary people. These are not the 
political class. These are folks who are sick and tired in Belarus of 
the authoritarian rule.
  I wish to show some of the people I met who I think are worth being 
part of the record today.
  First--and this was in a meeting established by our consulate in 
Minsk, Belarus. They threw out our Ambassador a few years ago. So we 
have five people trying to represent the United States of America in 
this country. Bless them for trying. It is a hard job. They are 
constantly monitored, eavesdropped, followed. Life is not pleasant. 
When we start getting down on people working for the United States of 
America, remember these five who are risking their lives for us every 
day so there is an outpost for the United States and for freedom in 
this authoritarian country.
  This lady was at the meeting in the consulate. Svyatlana Lyabedzka is 
the wife of Anatol Lyabedzka, chair of the United Civic Party. Anatol 
has been regularly harassed, fined, and imprisoned for his political 
activities. In 2004, he was severely beaten by Lukashenko's police 
force.
  His wife told me, in tears, that her husband has been taken away to 
jail and she has had no information about him. That has been almost 1 
month. She does not know what is happening to him or where he is being 
held.
  The second person I would like to make a part of this record is 
Tatsyana Sevyarynets. She is the mother of Paveal Sevyarynets, the head 
of Presidential candidate Vital Rymasheuski's campaign. He has already 
served several years in jail for protesting previous sham elections in 
Belarus. That is right, thrown in jail while protesting rigged 
elections, when it is those doing the rigging who ought to be in jail. 
Her letters go unanswered. Her complaints filed against the government 
have been ignored. She has been prevented from traveling, and her 
passport has been taken away for some time. She told me it is 
impossible to find an explanation for what is happening. ``My son has 
been persecuted for 16 years.''
  This photo shows--forgive me as I struggle with these names. These 
people deserve better. I will do my best--Kanstantsin Sannikau, Ala 
Sannikava, and Lyutsina Khalip. These three were at the meeting.
  Kanstantsin and Ala are the son and mother of a detained Presidential 
candidate, Andrei Sannikau.
  Ala told me, in tears, that she had no contact with her son for 14 
days, nor had his lawyers. She had no information on his condition.
  Lyutsina is the grandmother of the candidate's 3-year-old son Danil. 
You might have read about this little boy in the newspaper. What 
Lukashenko did was arrest this Presidential candidate and his wife and 
then said the State was going to take custody of his 3-year-old child. 
The grandmother stepped up and said: I will take custody. I will take 
care of the boy. For the longest time, it was in doubt whether he would 
remain with the family. They relented yesterday and said the boy could 
remain with the family.
  This is a picture of him--a cute little fellow, Danil. In Belarus, 
not only did they arrest the candidate Sannikau but they take the boy 
out of the house and family. That is what they planned on. When they 
arrested the wife Irina, a journalist and automatically considered 
dangerous in Belarus, they decided to go after her child. The 
grandmother fought a winning battle and now has custody of the child.
  Let's hope America's attention and the world's attention will make a 
difference.
  The last one I wish to show is particularly compelling. Milana 
Mikhalevich is a 34-year-old mother of two whose husband Alex was also 
a Presidential candidate. She told me of her harassment by Belarusian 
officials since her husband's arrest. Mr. President, 34 years old, and 
this young woman was standing there with this beautiful little girl, 
scrambling around on the floor all around her. She had a 10-year-old at 
home. She was trying to describe how she was keeping things together, 
while her husband, who had the courage to run for President and lose 
against the dictator Lukashenko, sat in prison.
  Incidentally, they do not get attorneys. That is not part of the 
deal. Anyone who says they will defend the people arrested is subject 
to disbarment as an attorney and charged with crimes themselves. It is 
not exactly a fertile field of attorneys stepping up to represent these 
people. They take their lives in their hands to do so. The families 
have no access, no communications, no correspondence, no way of 
visiting those in prison. They have no idea when they are going to be 
charged or tried. There is no indication that there is going to be a 
public trial.
  This is going on in Belarus today, and this woman with her little 
girl is trying to figure out when and if she will ever see her husband 
and the father of this little girl again.
  The nightmare she described to me was incredible. She literally has 
had her house raided by the Belarusian KGB. She has been stopped from 
going to Poland, where she was trying to find support for her husband. 
She doesn't even know how he is, physically.
  I was so glad to be in Lithuania and to join in the celebration of 
their quest

[[Page 669]]

for freedom and independence. After 20 years pass, sometimes you forget 
how much courage it took for that to happen. But a 3-hour drive from 
Vilnius to this event in Minsk reminded me. These people in Belarus are 
waging the same battle today that was waged in Lithuania and so many 
other places many years ago. They are trying to find the thing we in 
America take for granted every day--freedom, the freedom to practice 
the religion of their choice, the freedom to write a newspaper or do a 
blog, the freedom to vote for the candidate of their choice, their 
freedom to oppose government policy. As a result they have been 
arrested and imprisoned.
  I am calling on the government of Belarus to immediately and 
unconditionally release these political prisoners. The fact they 
continue to languish in jail without access to family, lawyers, or 
medical care is an outrage and an embarrassment to Europe and the 
world. These actions show the desperation and fear of a dictator whose 
reign belongs in the dustbin of history.
  The European Union will decide by the end of January whether Belarus 
should face renewed sanctions, including targeted travel and asset 
freezes against Lukashenko and his top elite political figures. The 
United States should waste no time joining this effort. I have spoken 
directly to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She understands, as I 
do, what is at stake here is today's fight for freedom. What is in 
question is whether the United States will stand and fight with these 
families. The European Union is prepared to lead and we should be by 
their side. We should be working together to put the pressure on this 
dictator to tell him in the 21st century there is no place for the 
bully of Belarus and the terrible oppressive tactics in which he has 
engaged.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Rhode Island is recognized.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Whitehouse pertaining to the introduction of S. 
45 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine is recognized.
  Ms. COLLINS. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Ms. Collins pertaining to the introduction of S. 112 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Ms. COLLINS. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. JOHANNS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Nebraska is recognized.

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