TALLINN, Estonia — Antanina Kanavalava says her 4 years in a Belarusian penal colony as a political prisoner have been full of a concern and anguish that also haunts her.
She practically misplaced parental rights to her two younger youngsters when she was initially arrested. Her eyesight deteriorated from stitching army uniforms in a dimly lit room. Denied entry to even primary wants like female hygiene merchandise, she used rags or no matter she might discover amid unsanitary circumstances.
“Girls in jail undergo hell and may’t even complain to anybody,” Kanavalava, 37, informed The Related Press after her launch in December. “The top of the jail informed me straight out that folks like me must be put in opposition to the wall and shot.”
Belarus has practically 1,200 political prisoners. Whereas all endure harsh circumstances like unheated cells, isolation and poor diet and well being care, human rights officers say the 178 ladies behind bars are significantly susceptible.
Pavel Sapelka, a lawyer with the Viasna human rights heart, says ladies are sometimes singled out for abuse and humiliation, threatened with dropping their youngsters, and having medical issues ignored.
Sapelka cited the case of Hanna Kandratsenka, 30, who died of cervical most cancers in February, months after getting her freedom. She was recognized in jail however denied early launch for therapy, he mentioned.
Unbiased consultants appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council describe “appalling” circumstances for ladies in Belarusian prisons, with “a blatant lack of accountability for the ailing therapy.”
Authoritarian President Lukashenko has dominated Belarus for over three many years, dwelling as much as his nickname of “Europe’s final dictator” by silencing dissent and increasing his rule by means of elections the West calls neither free nor truthful. A harsh crackdown adopted a disputed 2020 vote, when lots of of 1000’s took to the streets. Over 65,000 folks have been arrested, 1000’s have been crushed by police and lots of of unbiased media shops and nongovernmental organizations have been closed and outlawed.
Opposition figures are both imprisoned or have fled overseas. Amongst these behind bars is Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, the founding father of Viasna, and Maria Kolesnikova, an opposition chief. Though Lukashenko has freed over 300 political prisoners within the final yr, nonetheless others are arrested in a revolving door of repression.
U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned final week on social media that he spoke with Lukashenko and inspired him to launch extra. On Friday, Lukashenko responded: “Take them, carry them over there.”
Of the cruel circumstances, Lukashenko says Belarus treats inmates “usually,” including that “jail is just not a resort.”
The federal government has refused to permit worldwide displays and unbiased observers into the prisons.
Kanavalava was a confidant of opposition chief Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who challenged Lukashenko within the 2020 election however later fled the nation amid the next protests.
Together with her husband additionally jailed, Kanavalava was convicted of “taking part in mass riots” and sentenced to five 1/2 years. Authorities threatened to ship her 6-year-old son, Ivan, and 4-year-old daughter, Nasta, to an orphanage firstly of her sentence.
“For a mom to not see her youngsters for 4 years is actual torture,” she informed AP. “The authorities know this and rub salt into this maternal wound day by day, demanding I signal confessions and cooperate.”
The U.N. consultants mentioned feminine prisoners in Belarus have been topic to “arbitrary punishment, together with solitary confinement and incommunicado detention with out contact with their youngsters.”
Kanavalava likened it to being a “hostage,” saying she was pressured to cooperate with authorities as a result of “I wished to outlive for the sake of my youngsters.” Their grandmother finally took them to Warsaw, the place they have been reunited with their mom following her pardon and early launch in January,
Former political prisoner Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, 50, spent greater than 4 years behind bars in a number of detention facilities and penal colonies, serving 270 days in solitary confinement.
Held in a KGB detention heart with no scorching water, she used heat tea that she was served to clean herself, Sharenda-Panasiuk mentioned, describing unsanitary circumstances the place sicknesses “turn into persistent because of the fixed chilly.”
“The authorities intentionally exploit ladies’s vulnerabilities to humiliate them and create insufferable circumstances,” she added.
The U.N. consultants expressed specific concern for Viktoryia Kulsha, who was initially sentenced to 2 1/2 years for moderating a Telegram messaging channel that urged drivers to dam streets through the 2020 protests. 4 extra years have been tacked on for allegedly disobeying jail officers.
Human rights teams say the 43-year-old has gone on a minimum of six starvation strikes protesting abuses in Penal Colony No. 24 in Zarechcha. The U.N. consultants mentioned in Might her situation “has been life-threatening for a while now.”
Sharenda-Panasiuk, who was in the identical penal colony, mentioned she noticed a guard in 2023 punch Kulsha within the again, inflicting her to fall. The identical guard later choked her by grabbing her from behind, she added.
“Viktoria slit her veins and went on starvation strikes in protest in opposition to the tyranny of the jail authorities and this slaughterhouse, but it surely saved getting worse and they’re driving her to the brink,” Sharenda-Panasiuk mentioned. “Her sicknesses have worsened. … She has issues together with her breasts, with the thyroid gland.”
Circumstances in Penal Colony No. 24 are among the many harshest, she mentioned, describing stints in solitary confinement as torture. Girls typically work 12–14 hours a day, together with Sundays, to satisfy quotas. They’re underneath 24-hour surveillance, usually are not allowed walks outdoors, should put on the identical garments continually and sometimes don’t have any alternative to wash.
Strip searches are performed by each female and male staff, Sharenda-Panasiuk mentioned, and “throughout a switch from place to position, it was primarily males who searched me.”
Natallia Dulina was arrested in 2022, convicted of extremism — a typical cost for dissidents — and sentenced to three 1/2 years. She was pardoned and launched in June with 13 different political prisoners, and brought to neighboring Lithuania following a go to to Minsk by U.S. particular envoy Keith Kellogg.
The 60-year-old Italian instructor at Minsk State Linguistic College described significantly harsh therapy at Penal Colony No. 4, together with the set up of a “disgrace cage” within the courtyard. Girls are pressured to face within the cage for hours, in all climate, to punish them for disciplinary violations, she mentioned.
No such cages exist in males’s penal colonies, Sapelka mentioned, and “the authorities will provide you with new methods to abuse ladies specifically.”
U.N. consultants known as this punishment “inhuman and degrading.”
“I made a decision that if somebody ever tries to place me on this cage, I merely won’t go there — I’ll go straight into solitary confinement,” Dulina mentioned in an interview from Vilnius.
She described arbitrary punishment, including she as soon as misplaced visitation rights for feeding bread to a pigeon. Regardless of the cruel circumstances, she mentioned she refused to confess guilt or request a pardon.
Kanavalava, who lives in Warsaw together with her household, admits that “jail is just not over but” for her as a result of her husband nonetheless has practically two years left on his sentence.
Neither is the anxiousness. She mentioned “the concern of dropping my very own youngsters haunts me even in my desires.”
“It’s not possible to get used to the tyranny of the Belarusian authorities, however it’s even more durable to elucidate to youngsters and to your self the excessive value that Belarusians pay for his or her need to be free,” Kanavalava mentioned.
