May 21 is the Day of the Political prisoner in Belarus: show your solidarity! Updated with events schedule

Why May 21 is an important day for Belarus

Human rights defend­ers chose the date of the Day of Sol­i­dar­i­ty with Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers in Belarus for a rea­son. May 21 marks the anniver­sary of the death of polit­i­cal pris­on­er Vitold Ashu­rak in the colony.

Ashu­rak, a well-known activist from the town of Biarozau­ka, Lida dis­trict, was sen­tenced to five years in jail in a closed tri­al over his par­tic­i­pa­tion in 2020 protests. He was sent to serve his term in the Škloŭ penal colony. On May 21, 2021, the 244th day of his impris­on­ment, polit­i­cal pris­on­er Vitold Ashu­rak sud­den­ly died. The report­ed cause of death is car­diac arrest, although, accord­ing to rel­a­tives, the man did not have any com­plaints about his health. No inves­ti­ga­tion into his death has been start­ed. Ashu­rak was the first to talk about mass label­ing polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in colonies with yel­low tags. He wrote about this in his let­ter: 

“There is no short­age of polit­i­cal [pris­on­ers] here [in Škloŭ colony]. So there is no rea­son to be sad. More­over, the admin­is­tra­tion has issued an order to have yel­low-col­ored tags on clothes and polit­i­cal pris­on­ers can be dis­tin­guished from afar.”

The author­i­ties refused to inves­ti­gate Vitold Ashu­ral’s death in the colony.

In let­ters to the out­side world, Vitold Ashu­rak often wrote about the sol­i­dar­i­ty and sup­port of Belaru­sians. Here is what he wrote in his last let­ter to his moth­er, dat­ed April 14, 2021:

“For­tu­nate­ly, we have won­der­ful peo­ple, and they have sup­port­ed me whole­heart­ed­ly. And now, when I have tem­porar­i­ly end­ed up in prison, peo­ple sup­port me even more, send­ing let­ters and post­cards, pass­ing on pack­ages and send­ing mon­ey, pay­ing my sub­scrip­tion to news­pa­pers, and pray­ing in church­es and cathe­drals all over Belarus! There are so many let­ters that I can bare­ly keep up with the replies!”

The prob­lem of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in Belarus only inten­si­fies over time as their num­bers con­tin­ue to grow, with women and men being held in inhu­mane con­di­tions, tor­tured and beat­en, and not get­ting prop­er med­ical care. In deten­tion facil­i­ties, they face rights vio­la­tions and pres­sure. Polit­i­cal pris­on­ers’ right to defense and cor­re­spon­dence is lim­it­ed; they are deprived of pack­ages and vis­its from rel­a­tives and are forced into hard labor.

“The authorities want us to forget the word ‘solidarity’”

Human rights defend­ers of Vias­na chose let­ters and the right to cor­re­spon­dence as the theme for this year’s Day of Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers. We want to draw the Belaru­sian and inter­na­tion­al community’s atten­tion to block­ing mail for polit­i­cal pris­on­ers. Vias­na human rights defend­er Dziyana Pinchuk com­ments:

“Today in Belarus, we have an unprece­dent­ed sit­u­a­tion where the author­i­ties have effec­tive­ly deprived hun­dreds of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers of their right to cor­re­spon­dence. Although it is still guar­an­teed by law, like many oth­er rights, it is bla­tant­ly vio­lat­ed dur­ing times of legal default. The sit­u­a­tion wors­ened sig­nif­i­cant­ly with the out­break of the war in Ukraine in 2022; polit­i­cal pris­on­ers have been increas­ing­ly denied sol­i­dar­i­ty let­ters in pre­tri­al deten­tion cen­ters, pris­ons, and colonies, not only from con­cerned peo­ple and friends but often from fam­i­ly mem­bers as well. Some­times colony staff destroys let­ters in front of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers.

By block­ing cor­re­spon­dence for polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, the author­i­ties want us to for­get the word ‘sol­i­dar­i­ty’ and live as if our pris­ons and colonies are not filled with polit­i­cal pris­on­ers and new arrests are not hap­pen­ing dai­ly.

But we will con­tin­ue to sup­port them because, as Ales Biali­ats­ki said dur­ing his tri­al, “It is in the tra­di­tion of the Belaru­sian peo­ple to help peo­ple in need.”

Human rights defend­ers firm­ly believe that we must con­tin­ue to write let­ters to polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, as, even if they don’t reach the addressee, deten­tion offi­cers will see that peo­ple remem­ber, care, and wait for their release.

How to join us: Political Prisoner’s Day activities

1. Orga­nize or join a sol­i­dar­i­ty action in your city on May 21 to sup­port Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­ers and com­mem­o­rate Vitold Ashu­rak.

2. Orga­nize an event for sign­ing let­ters and post­cards of sol­i­dar­i­ty.

3. On May 21, attach a paper bird with a polit­i­cal prisoner’s sur­name or a yel­low tag to your clothes, take a pho­to, and post it on social media with hash­tags #FreeThe­mAll #WeS­tand­ByY­ou.

4. Record a video of your­self read­ing a let­ter from a polit­i­cal pris­on­er and post it on social media with hash­tags #FreeThe­mAll #WeS­tand­ByY­ou.

5. Write a let­ter to a polit­i­cal pris­on­er and post it on social media with hash­tags #FreeThe­mAll #WeS­tand­ByY­ou. The let­ter can be sent to the pris­on­er online through the Sol­i­dar­i­ty Post­cards Ate­lier.

6. Sup­port polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in anoth­er way by send­ing parcels, telegrams, and mon­ey trans­fers.

7. Oth­er ideas are wel­comed! Use your cre­ative pow­er to stand up in sol­i­dar­i­ty with polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in Belarus.

Use our hash­tags #FreeThe­mAll #WeS­tand­ByY­ou and tag Vias­na on social media.

[NEW] International events schedule

[updat­ed: May 12, 2023]

Events for Belarus Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers’ Sol­i­dar­i­ty Day will take place in var­i­ous coun­tries and cities:

May 19, Friday

• Vil­nius, Lithua­nia, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM. The sign­ing of post­cards and let­ters for polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in Belarus. Venue: Cre­ate­Cul­ture Space, Karmelitų g. 5.

May 20, Saturday

• War­saw, Poland, 6:30 PM. Vitold Ashu­rak com­mem­o­ra­tive gath­er­ing. Friends and rel­a­tives will share their mem­o­ries of Vitold and his life prin­ci­ples. There will also be a musi­cal part. Venue: Belaru­sian House in War­saw (ul. Kryn­icz­na 6).

• Bre­men, Ger­many. Belaru­sians in Bre­men, Razam Bre­men, and activists from Sal­i­dar­nast will gath­er to cre­ate post­cards and write let­ters to polit­i­cal pris­on­ers on the eve of Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers Day. The time and loca­tion can be found in the Razam Face­book group.

May 21, Sunday

Vil­nius, Lithua­nia, 11:00 AM. The Read­ing of the Names of the 1,500 Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­ers will take place near the mur­al of Nobel Peace Prize lau­re­ate polit­i­cal pris­on­er Ales Biali­ats­ki. Address: Min­dau­go g. 18.

• Vil­nius, Lithua­nia, 12:00 PM. Action in sup­port of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers. Details will fol­low.

• War­saw, Poland, 12:45 PM – 2:00 PM. Ral­ly for Belaru­sian Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers’ Day. After the ral­ly, there will be a demon­stra­tion from Con­sti­tu­tion Square to Krakowskie Przed­mieś­cie where the pro­gram will con­tin­ue. Loca­tion: Con­sti­tu­tion Square (Plac Kon­sty­tucji) 6.

• War­saw, Poland, 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM. Ral­ly and chain of sol­i­dar­i­ty with those cur­rent­ly impris­oned for polit­i­cal rea­sons in Belarus. The event is orga­nized by a group of for­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, sup­port­ed by the Nation­al Anti-Cri­sis Man­age­ment, Muse­um of Free Belarus, Vet­er­ans of Kas­tuś Kali­noŭs­ki Reg­i­ment, BY_POL Ini­tia­tive, and the Asso­ci­a­tion of Belaru­sian Busi­ness­men ABBA. Loca­tion: Coper­ni­cus Square (Plac Kon­sty­tucji).

• New York, USA. On May 21, a pic­nic of the Belaru­sians of New York and sur­round­ings will be held in Cen­tral Park to sup­port Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­ers and com­mem­o­rate Vitold Ashu­rak. The event is orga­nized for like-mind­ed indi­vid­u­als who care about the fate of our com­pa­tri­ots behind bars. The sign­ing of sol­i­dar­i­ty let­ters and post­cards is planned, with the sup­port of the Sol­i­dar­i­ty Post­card Ate­lier. More details can be found on Insta­gram.

Common Prayers

• In Rome, a mass in sup­port of Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­ers will be held on May 21 at 11:00 AM. Venue: Via di San Sebas­tianel­lo 11, Roma

• In Vil­nius, the Ortho­dox com­mu­ni­ty of the Ecu­meni­cal Patri­ar­chate will join the Day of Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers. Venue: Bokš­to g. 2. Sched­ule

  • 8:40 AM – 9:50 AM: Mess and com­mon prayer for the release of all those unjust­ly con­demned

  • 9:50 AM – 10:05 AM: Prayer for all the unjust­ly con­vict­ed and impris­oned before the icon “Joy of All Who Sor­row”. Remem­brance of the names of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers of Belarus

  • 10:00 AM – Sym­bol­ic light­ing of the “Prayer can­dle for free­dom”

Free­dom to polit­i­cal pris­on­ers!  

The author­i­ties are try­ing to destroy inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism in Belarus. Sup­port the Sol­i­dar­i­ty Marathon!