On January 19, a month after a peaceful demonstration in Minsk had been forcefully dispersed, a public action was held in front of the Belarusian mission to the United Nations in New York. The event was organized by the Belarus Free Theatre, the New York Public Theater, and Amnesty International.

Over 300 people, among them actors of the Belarus Free Theatre, American theatre and cinema stars, Amnesty International leaders and volunteers, representatives of the Belarusian diaspora in the US, gathered at noon January 19 gathered Wednesday at the corner of 67th St. and Lexington Avenue in front of the Belarusian mission to the United Nations.

The demonstrators passed a copy of the petition sent to the UN Special High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Belarusian mission to the UN. The petition says about immediate and unconditional release of al political prisoners; appointing a special rapporteur on violation of human rights in Belarus during and after the presidential election; demands that the Belarusian authorities should give information regarding political prisoners; and calls to apply pressure on the authorities in order they allow prisoners’ to lawyers.

Natalia Kaliada, director of the Belarus Free Theatre, Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the Public Theater, Tony Kushner, playwright Pulitzer and Prize winner addressed the mob. Natalia Kaliada emphasized the action was organized not by politicians, but by artists. If politicians were guided by the moral rather than economic and geopolitical interests as artists do, the dictatorship in Belarus would have collapsed long ago, she said.

Tony Kushner read out a few letters of political prisoners from Belarusian jails; Oskar Eustis explained the crowd what every US citizen can do to improve situation in Belarus: send appeals to their senators and congressmen demanding them to hold special hearings on Belarus; sign a petition to President Obama demanding him to make a harsh statement on the Belarusian issue and take actions to solve it; send letters to the embassy and consulates of Belarus in the US asking to pass appeals to the Belarusian authorities to immediately release political prisoners.

Demonstrators shouted ‘Obama, stop Lukashenka!’, ‘UN act right now!’, ‘Release political prisoners immediately!’, “Long live Belarus!’ and others.

The protest action was widely covered by world’s biggest TV channels and newspapers, CNN, BBC, The New York Times, etc. A new wave of arrested was started in Minsk during the demonstration and this information was rapidly spread by leading TV channels and radio stations.

Nikolai Khalezin

Translation: Charter`97

On the photo: Tony Kushner, Natalia Kaliada, and Oskar Eustis