Belarus regime targets opposition with threat to seize children
Opponents of Alexander Lukashenko's regime may lose their children. With the new year, a new law has come into effect, expanding the list of situations and cases in which families may have their children taken away. Observers believe that the real aim is to coerce Lukashenko's opponents into silence during the January presidential elections.
Lukashenko's regime is broadening the criteria for removing children from families in situations deemed "socially dangerous." The Prime Minister of Belarus, Raman Halouchanka, signed these new regulations, which took effect on 1st January.
From now on, authorities can remove a child if their parents have been convicted under "political" articles of the Code of Administrative Offences.
Opponents of Alexander Lukashenko's regime in Belarus may lose their children for various reasons. The regulations specify:
- "Spreading extremist materials," which in practice means sharing, commenting, or liking any content from independent media or social media profiles associated with the Belarusian opposition. The TV channel Belsat has been on the list of "extremist materials" since 2020, and recently Alina Kouszyk's Instagram, the new editor-in-chief of Belsat, was also added;
- "Involving a minor in antisocial behaviour," meaning taking a child to an illegal assembly, common in August 2020;
- "Petty hooliganism," such as chanting anti-regime slogans.
Lukashenko wants to enforce silence during January's presidential elections
As a result of the presidential elections in Belarus in 2020, which the government manipulated, local courts issued detentions and fines to tens of thousands of citizens. The amendment of the existing regulations poses a real threat of losing children for many of these families. This situation may lead a significant number of families to consider emigration as a way to avoid such drastic consequences.
In an interview with Belsat, political scientist Alina Charysawa, an expert in the analysis and strategy department of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's office, assessed that the regime's goal is not to take as many children from Belarusians as possible but to force them into silence during the January presidential elections - to "impose self-censorship."
Interest in politics is compared to social wrongdoing. Such measures are deliberately enacted before the so-called elections to heighten pressure on society so that no one dares speak against the regime. The families, fearful for their children, feel the greatest pressure. This is a very sensitive group, Charysawa emphasised.
No child should suffer because their parents dream of freedom. Yet, thousands of children in Belarus are separated from their parents due to political repression, wrote Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of democratic Belarus, on platform X.
Source: Belsat/WP
