No Safe Poland Without Free Belarus, Says Belarusian Opposition Leader
Belarusian exiles living in Poland and their supporters marched through the streets of the Polish capital on Saturday to mark Freedom Day.
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Belarusian exiles living in Poland and their supporters marched through the streets of the Polish capital on Saturday to mark Freedom Day, an unofficial holiday celebrating Belarus’ independence, which is banned by Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.
Hundreds of people gathered at Trzech Krzyży Square in central Warsaw for the rally before marching towards Zamkowy Square in front of the Royal Castle in the Old Town district, carrying a 330‑meter red and white Belarusian flag.
Participants also held banners emblazoned with slogans such as “Belarus will be free” and “For our freedom and yours.” The latter was the motto sewn on the standards of the 1863 January Uprising against Russian rule, which took place in parts of present-day Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine.
“We come from different cities of Poland — a country that fought for its own freedom and today helps us. [Poland] understands very well that without a free Belarus, there will be no safe Poland,” opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told the crowd.
“Today we say: ‘thank you.’ We thank Poland; we thank the Polish people,” she added.
The leader of the Belarusian democratic opposition said that on Saturday, people living in Belarus wrote to her in clandestinely sent messages, saying that they were celebrating as well.
The parliament also acknowledged Belarusians fighting alongside Ukraine on the front lines, including members of the Kastus Kalinouski Regiment.
“We are waiting for the moment when we will be able to return to Belarus,” she said.
Pavel Latushka, deputy head of the Belarusian opposition’s United Transitional Cabinet, Belarus’ government-in-exile, said: “Freedom for Belarus begins with our will.”
“I want to say today: I have the will to fight for freedom. I am convinced that those who gathered here today in the square in Warsaw also have the will to fight for our freedom,” he continued.
Freedom Day in exile: Belarus opposition says identity survives repression
The event was also attended by Polish politicians, MEPs from the ruling Civic Coalition (KO) Andrzej Halicki and Grzegorz Schetyna. They also addressed the crowd and expressed support for the Belarusian people.
“As long as Belarus is not free and democratic, you have a home here,” Halicki said, adding that until then, they will be represented by Poland’s politicians both in the Polish and the European parliaments.
“We are convinced that on the next Belarus Freedom Day, Andrzej Poczobut will be able to celebrate with us—your struggle for freedom, your dream of freedom,” said Schetyna, referring to the Polish‑Belarusian journalist imprisoned five years ago
Speaking about the event, Tsikhanouskaya told the Polish state news agency PAP: “It is a symbol of our perseverance and our pursuit of freedom.”
Freedom Day
The march marking Belarus’ Independence Day made its way through the streets of the capital three days after the calendar date of Freedom Day on March 25.
The date marks an unofficial Belarusian independence holiday, celebrated by democratic circles since March 25, 1918, when the first Belarusian state — the Belarusian People’s Republic (BNR) — was proclaimed.
Meanwhile, the government of Alexander Lukashenko designated official independence celebrations for July 3. The date is the anniversary of Minsk’s liberation from German occupation by the Red Army in 1944.
Belarusian Human Rights Center Viasna estimates there are still 910 political prisoners in Belarus.
See the original of this report by Michał Woźniak for TVP Worldhere.
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