Rally in support of Belarusian victims of repressions, their kids staged in Kyiv
A rally in defense of the rights of Belarusian children whose relatives became victims of political repressions has been held in the Ukrainian capital city on Thursday.
About 20 persons showed up at the action of solidatity with families of forced emigrants from Belarus which took place in front of the building of the Belarusian embassy in Kyiv.
During the event, a Ukrainian MP, human rights activists, as well as representatives of the Belarusian diaspora in Ukraine delivered their speeches. The participants of the action called on the Ukrainian authorities to assist in the adaptation and rehabilitation of Belarusian children in Ukraine, and urged the international community and organizations to pay more attention to the problem of political pressure which the Belarusian authorities exert on protesters and dissidents, threatening them, among others, with taking away their children.
In September 2020, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Belarus announced that parents would be punished for their children’s taking part in ‘unauthorised mass events’, and the minors might be taken away from their families. The parental responsibility for ‘illegal’ behaviour of their kids is to be increased in severity, Deputy Prosecutor General Alyaksei Stuk warned.
Ahead of the six-month anniversary of the start of protests in the country, Amnesty International stressed that the Belarusian authorities kept resorting to threats, harassment and prosecution of children in an increasingly desperate attempt to suppress dissent.
The Belarusian authorities have repeatedly threatened journalist Larysa Shchyrakova, a Belsat TV contributor and single mother, to take away her 13-year-old son. When she was detained and interrogated amid the post-election protests in the country, the police said the boy might be sent to orphanage.
