It is about the value of human life. People can live in peace and prosperity and have cultural and language differences. If Putin is too lost to reason with others may want to end the genocide. Many people of Belarus do not find their current president a worthy candidate. If there was an offer of peace by his opposition it may assist to stablize the region in hopes of ending the war that Putin refuses to call war.
I think the people of Belarus need an alternative. They should never think Russian influence is their only option in governance.
June 15, 2022
By Brian Whitmore
This is a nuclear-capable Iskander missile and launcher that Belarus is deploying on the Ukraine border. That is a little to close to NATO for comfort. It isn't a highly sophisicated missile and launcher, but, nuclear capacity sitting on a country's border doesn't have to be all that accurate. I don't see that NATO should put up with this mess. It is getting more reckless than should be tolerated.
With war raging in Ukraine’s east and south, (click here) there are mounting concerns that the threat to the country’s north and west, including the capital Kyiv, could soon return.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka said on June 10 that Belarus may be forced to enter the war to fight for the west of Ukraine so that it is “not chopped off” by NATO. The Belarusian dictator’s remarks came as Minsk was reinforcing its electronic warfare capabilities along the Ukrainian border, according to a Facebook post by the Ukrainian General Staff. “Combat engineering tasks are being performed to reinforce checkpoints and deploy additional electronic warfare equipment in the areas near the border between Belarus and Ukraine,” the General Staff wrote.
Additionally, Belarus has been conducting military exercises in the area and Lukashenka has announced the creation of an operational command for troops on the border with Ukraine. Russia has recently deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles, Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft gun systems, and S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems near the frontier. Alongside these developments, Lukashenka has announced the purchase of S-400s and Iskanders from Russia. The Belarusian autocrat has also ordered the creation of a “people’s militia.”...
With war raging in Ukraine’s east and south, (click here) there are mounting concerns that the threat to the country’s north and west, including the capital Kyiv, could soon return.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka said on June 10 that Belarus may be forced to enter the war to fight for the west of Ukraine so that it is “not chopped off” by NATO. The Belarusian dictator’s remarks came as Minsk was reinforcing its electronic warfare capabilities along the Ukrainian border, according to a Facebook post by the Ukrainian General Staff. “Combat engineering tasks are being performed to reinforce checkpoints and deploy additional electronic warfare equipment in the areas near the border between Belarus and Ukraine,” the General Staff wrote.
Additionally, Belarus has been conducting military exercises in the area and Lukashenka has announced the creation of an operational command for troops on the border with Ukraine. Russia has recently deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles, Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft gun systems, and S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems near the frontier. Alongside these developments, Lukashenka has announced the purchase of S-400s and Iskanders from Russia. The Belarusian autocrat has also ordered the creation of a “people’s militia.”...
Andrei Machalau (click here)
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, (click here) a partnership of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Belarus....
...Actions requested
Please write to the authorities of Belarus to urge them to:
guarantee in all circumstances the physical integrity and psychological well-being of Andrei Machalau and all other human rights defenders in Belarus;
quash the conviction of Andrei Machalau and put an end to all forms of harassment, including at the judicial level, against him and all human rights defenders in Belarus, and ensure that they are able to carry out their activities without hindrance or fear of reprisals,
immediately revert the regional Minsk Bar Association’s decision and reinstate Andrei Machalau his lawyer’s license, as its cancellation is only aimed at punishing him for his legitimate human rights activities;
ensure an enabling legal, institutional, and administrative environment that effectively guarantees the right to defend human rights, the right to freedom of association, and protects human rights defenders in Belarus.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, (click here) a partnership of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Belarus....
...Actions requested
Please write to the authorities of Belarus to urge them to:
guarantee in all circumstances the physical integrity and psychological well-being of Andrei Machalau and all other human rights defenders in Belarus; quash the conviction of Andrei Machalau and put an end to all forms of harassment, including at the judicial level, against him and all human rights defenders in Belarus, and ensure that they are able to carry out their activities without hindrance or fear of reprisals, immediately revert the regional Minsk Bar Association’s decision and reinstate Andrei Machalau his lawyer’s license, as its cancellation is only aimed at punishing him for his legitimate human rights activities; ensure an enabling legal, institutional, and administrative environment that effectively guarantees the right to defend human rights, the right to freedom of association, and protects human rights defenders in Belarus.There is already a nascent resistence movement in Belarus. They want to fight communism, not Russians. They don't care where it means the fighting is, if Ukraine then it is Ukraine. There are people in the region that do not see genocide as justified by any power. Belarus and Russian's current leadership are violating the Geneva Conventions and any other human rights dialogue.
By Joanna Kakissis
A volunteer sleeps in the Belarusian House, a cultural center in Warsaw, while waiting to leave for Ukraine. Many Belarusians have come to enlist in a battalion named after Kastus Kalinouski, a writer and revolutionary who was the driving force behind Belarusian nationalism in the 19th century.
Inside a sunny classroom in a leafy neighborhood, (click here) a burly man in army fatigues and a black martial arts T-shirt holds up a tourniquet.
"We use this for serious gunshot and shrapnel wounds, or if we have severed limbs because of explosions," he says in Polish to about 30 men.
An interpreter repeats the instructions in Russian for the class — all men are from the former Soviet republic of Belarus. They're learning first aid before heading to Ukraine, where they will join the Kastus Kalinouski Battalion, an all-Belarusian volunteer brigade that fights alongside Ukrainian soldiers.
"We have this motto — for our and your freedom," says Pavel Kukhta, a brigade leader in charge of new recruits who says he receives 100 applications a day. "We're totally in solidarity with Ukrainian people."
Belarusians like Kukhta see Ukraine's defense against Russia as inextricably linked to Belarus' fate as a future democracy free of Kremlin influence. The idea is that Russia's defeat in Ukraine would both deal a blow to the Russian President Vladimir Putin's imperial ambitions and bring down his close ally, Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko....
Inside a sunny classroom in a leafy neighborhood, (click here) a burly man in army fatigues and a black martial arts T-shirt holds up a tourniquet.
"We use this for serious gunshot and shrapnel wounds, or if we have severed limbs because of explosions," he says in Polish to about 30 men.
An interpreter repeats the instructions in Russian for the class — all men are from the former Soviet republic of Belarus. They're learning first aid before heading to Ukraine, where they will join the Kastus Kalinouski Battalion, an all-Belarusian volunteer brigade that fights alongside Ukrainian soldiers.
"We have this motto — for our and your freedom," says Pavel Kukhta, a brigade leader in charge of new recruits who says he receives 100 applications a day. "We're totally in solidarity with Ukrainian people."
Belarusians like Kukhta see Ukraine's defense against Russia as inextricably linked to Belarus' fate as a future democracy free of Kremlin influence. The idea is that Russia's defeat in Ukraine would both deal a blow to the Russian President Vladimir Putin's imperial ambitions and bring down his close ally, Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko....
