Belarusian opponent Svetlana Tikhanovskaya asks for UN help to continue her fight

The leader of the Belarusian opposition Svetlana Tikhanovskaya does not intend to stop her "

fight

" despite the extradition request made by Belarus, and asks for the help of the UN, he said. she declared Sunday.

Read also: Belarus: Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the success of a candidate by accident

“

We are convinced that at some point this regime will fall, because the pressure it is under comes from both inside and outside.

At some point, he will not be able to avoid starting to negotiate to get out of this huge crisis,

”said the one who was forced to take refuge in Lithuania for her role in the 2020 post-electoral protest movement.

Leading figure of the Belarusian opposition, candidate for the 2020 presidential election, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya arrived in Geneva on Sunday, in particular to participate in a debate on her country organized by the International Film Festival on Human Rights (FIFDH), alongside other opponents, including Olga Kovalkova, an exiled official of the Opposition Coordination Council in Belarus.

Ms Tikhanovskaya, whose husband was jailed last year after trying to run for president, remains stoic despite the extradition request made public on Friday by Minsk, immediately rejected by Lithuania.

Does she feel in danger in Europe?

"

There is a minimum risk but it will not stop me in my fight,

" she assured AFP, very calmly.

Call for help

Surrounded by an impressive security service, the opponent, 38 years old and mother of two, even split from a walkabout when she arrived in Geneva, in front of the United Nations headquarters, where the several dozen supporters were expecting.

His visit to Geneva, Switzerland, is also the occasion for an appeal for help launched at the UN.

Because even if the Human Rights Council (CHR) already organized an urgent debate on Belarus in September, Ms Tikhanovskaïa hopes that the United Nations will continue to help her out of "

repression

".

In the next few days, it is due to meet two independent UN experts and hopes that the 47 member states of the HRC, which is currently holding its 46th session, adopt a resolution on Belarus.

“

We would like to see the Special Rapporteur on Belarus mentioned in this resolution so that he can have access to prisons and detainees and can see for himself the absolutely deplorable situation in the places of detention. detention,

”she pleaded.

She also calls for the resolution to provide for the establishment of a group of experts to investigate the human rights situation in her country.

Because the opponent is hardly under any illusions: “

We understood very well that it was not possible to have direct negotiations between Belarusian society and the regime.

"

"Build up the pressure"

"

We must step up the pressure,

" she insisted.

She hopes in this way to be able to get the Belarusian authorities to establish a "

platform for dialogue

", through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

"

We would like these negotiations, these discussions to be as open and transparent as possible, and for neighboring countries but also other democratic countries to participate

," she added.

The regime of President Alexander Lukashenko, supported by Russia, has suppressed since last year a historic protest movement born of the controversial re-election in August of the head of state, at the helm of this former Soviet republic since 1994.

"

The regime has succeeded in stopping all these large-scale demonstrations with the help of weapons, repression, torture,

" lamented Ms. Tikhanovskaïa.

“

People continue to take to the streets, but these are small groups that are completely dispersed throughout the city, because the level of violence and repression is such that people are looking for ways to protest that expose them less to risk of being arrested and put in prison,

”she said.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has been prosecuted in her country since the fall of 2020 for "

calls for actions undermining national security

", a crime punishable by three to five years in prison.

Were the personal sacrifices she endured worth it?

“

For my part, I would take this path again, but I don't like to see the sacrifices made by the population, all the victims of repression.

"