It remains an undying wish of Aliaksandra Shukshyna to uncover the hands silencing the Belarusian people of their cries from brutal, government crackdowns.
Godwin Senior Aliaksandra Shukshyna, better known as Sasha, aspires to be a part of the solution to the ongoing problem brewing in her home country of Belarus.
Due to the lack of media coverage and worldwide awareness, the authoritarian grip on Belarus is firm without much retaliation other than from the Belarusian citizens themselves.
Much like Putin, Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’s incumbent President, appears to be the “only one real candidate and only one winner.”
Having held office since 1994, Lukashenko is not a crowd favorite for many reasons, including his communist and authoritarian rule, direct violation of rights and freedoms, and poor economic policies that make Belarus dependent upon other countries.
Rigged is a common description of these elections by the Belarusian people, whose voices have been smothered by Lukashenko’s grip on elections. These strategically designed elections are “a sham with no real electoral process, conducted in an atmosphere of terror. No alternative candidates or observers will be allowed,” stated Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a Belarusian politician who fled to Lithuania in 2020.
Catalyzing the emergence of nationwide protests, the 2020 Belarusian presidential elections demonstrated the country’s continuous lack of fair and just presidential nominations.
Following the predictable and rigged results, protests began to transpire during August, catching the attention of Lukashenko. At 14, Shukshyna accidentally found herself amid a crowd of protestors after leaving the cinema with her friends.
Although these protests remained peaceful from Aug. 9 to 11 in Belarus’s capital of Minsk, Lukashenko took any dissent as an uprising against his undeniable power. Because of Lukashenko’s orders to quash the demonstrations, thousands were rounded up and brought to detention centers. Among them was Shukshyna who was wrongly held for hours, mistaken for a protestor.
On the second day of protests, Shukshyna’s presence was intentional, as she wanted a different life for her family and herself. What had been a day full of peaceful protests and hope quickly turned violent.
Shukshyna found herself and other protesters on a bridge, surrounded by policemen who had been summoned by Lukashenko to end the gathering.
To avoid the baton-wielding policeman, Shukshyna jumped off a three-story tall bridge into a lake below, suffering a broken arm. She was then caught and ordered to a detention center for two days, contracting an infection during those 48 hours that would later send her to the hospital.
“The scariest thing was when I was in the detention center and I saw the infection get worse. I literally thought ‘I could die there’ because they didn’t allow us to use the toilet, or get water, and they didn’t feed us. My mom said that if I went to that protest again I’m dead.”
What Shukshyna experienced wasn’t even the worst that the Belarusian policemen were capable of. As published by Human Rights Watch, “Former detainees described beatings, prolonged stress positions, electric shocks, and in at least one case, rape. Some had serious injuries.”
After her release, she was able to reunite with her parents during hospitalization. “My mom and my dad came to me, but didn’t know I went to that protest. I just disappeared for two days,” said Shunkshyna.
Thousands of people were detained and defeated by the power of the policemen, beating the mere hope surrounding their idea of possible liberty out of them.
“The 2020 vote ignited mass protests that almost led to Lukashenko’s fall — but for a brutal campaign to suppress protesters and opponents which was backed by Putin,” says Politico reporter Ketrin Jochecová.
Lukashenko took it upon himself to strengthen his presidential power by passing a law that proposed “immunity, lifelong protection, and state-provided property upon his resignation from the presidential office.”
Outside these protests, Lukashenko finds other areas of life to barge in on and take control over. Shukshyna describes the military making an appearance at her school.
“When the protests started in 2020, the military was in our school checking our phones and lives. I could go class to class and the military could catch me and check what I google, and if they found something they didn’t like they could send me to detention.”
Shukshyna has seen, felt, and heard the cries for help by the Belarusian people who are seeking the bare minimum from their current leader.
The dangers these protests presented led the Shukshyna family to immigrate (find year) to the United States, hoping to seek a more fulfilling life that would lift the restrictions imposed on life by Lukashenko that deprived Belarusians of freedom.
While many have done the same and fled somewhere safer, family members of Shukshyna still reside in Belarus, praying for change. Shukshyna plans to major in criminal justice once she graduates, hoping to provide equality to the people and exterminate the violence present in her home country one day.
