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Exiled Belarus Opposition Leader To Address United Nations

by Stefan Bos, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The team of exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya says she will address the United Nations Security Council. Her address later this week comes amid mounting pressure in longtime Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko to step down.

Belarusians are defying the army and other security measures. Since this weekend, at least an estimated 100,000 people have demanded the resignation of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

They do not believe he won the August 9 presidential election with 80 percent of the vote. Some 125 people were reportedly detained in these latest protests in the capital Minsk. They join the thousands of demonstrators taken into custody in recent weeks as part of a broader police crackdown.

Additionally, foreign reporters were expelled, or Belarusians working for foreign media outlets had their accreditation withdrawn. So far four people have reportedly died, and hundreds were injured in the ongoing unrest this month.

In response, the Baltic states Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia announced travel sanctions on 30 Belarusian officials they consider responsible for the police crackdown on peaceful protestors.

LUKASHENKO UNIMPRESSED

But Lukashenko seems unimpressed. He has asked Russia to assist in security measures. President Lukashenko is topping the blacklist. The European Union is also considering sanctions.

And he had a warning for protestors and their international supporters. “Today, we are witnessing a hybrid war against Belarus. How else can it be defined? The mass media, the sphere of information, is affected by this war,” he said.

“This is the war of warring parties. If we look deeper, we will see that the diplomatic slaughter against us has also started. On the highest level.”

He also complained that the neighbors of Belarus “openly talk about the rerun elections in Belarus” and interfere with the country’s domestic issues.

However, he warns that he will “stabilize the situation” on the Western borders. “Do you see the claims that Belarus is falling apart, of Grodno region’s transfer to Poland? They openly declare this, they are dreaming about it. But they will not succeed. I know it for sure.”

LITHUANIA EXILE

But the Belarussian opposition has made clear it will not back down. The team of Belarusian opposition leader Tikhanovskaya said she will speak to the U.N. Security Council via video link.

She will speak there at the invitation of Estonia on Friday. Tikhanovskaya is also to address the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe next week.

The 37-year-old former English teacher says she was forced to flee to Lithuania following threats against her and her two small children.

Church leaders have also condemned the violence and threats against protestors and opposition representatives and appealed for prayers.

Making those statements isn’t without consequences. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Minsk and Mogilev, Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, was prevented from returning home from neighboring Poland.