An Appeal to Rotary International Leaders re Belarus

Dear leaders of Rotary International,

I call you to publicly condemn brutal human rights violations that are taking place 50 km from my home and take actions at our disposal to promote peace and understanding:

1. Condemn publicly the brutal violence, abuse of basic human rights and international treaties, and support with funds for the treatment of injured

2. Offer Rotary Peace Scholarships for Belarussian NGO leaders

3. 3) Join me, tens of thousands of Lithuanians and our President Ms.Dalia Grybauskaite for the peaceful human chain The Freedom Way on August 23, 2020, 9 AM CST time

What is happening today in our neighborhood is NOT about politics, it is about HUMAN RIGHTS of oppressed people standing up for their basic dignity, their friends and family, and a right to vote in democratic elections. The President-Elect did not “flee” to my country Lithuania, where she is safe today – she was brutally pushed by local KGB and dropped at our country's border with her campaign manager and her little kids, after 7 hours of being held hostage alone and receiving who know what kind of threats, being forced to record a few hostage speeches.

With increasing brutality, more and more people lose their fear for personal safety, as they start having nothing else to lose – their sons, daughters, parents, and friends are brutally beaten or go missing for a few days without any information about their whereabouts, journalists are beaten or kidnapped from the hotels, first aid ambulance cars are hijacked by armed men to deceive the peaceful protesters, there multiple horrifying accounts from those few released from prison and mounting evidence about inhuman tortures, people being strip-naked, sadistically beaten, girls and women, receiving rape threats, no food or even water, no medical support, in the detentions chambers, screams heard all night by relatives standing behind fences in hope to find a missing loved one.

And don’t think that this bloody dictator doesn’t know what is going on - one of his sons is controlling armed power structures (aren’t there some resemblance somewhere?).

In addition to my native Lithuanian, I also speak English and Russian, and I can understand multiple horrifying and chilling written, audio, and video witness accounts before only a few of them are being translated to an English-speaking audience. I know this country as I directly worked there, bringing some of the first international investors. There is a half-joke about why there are still too few Rotary clubs in Belarus – because it is a threat to your life to carry the title of the [club’s] president.

For the first time ever, I am witnessing such a massive discontent of Belarus people with the lies and brutality of the regime. There is a point of no return, when people lose their fear, because they have nothing left to lose, bet they need our solidarity and support, and they need to know that they are not alone. Doctors, scientists, whole factories, and even some former members of armed power structures are standing up.

The world must know, learn, and stop this - Stalin & Hitler-style tortures in Europe, bordering the European Union. History tends to repeat if you fail to remember.

I was 18, witnessing with my own eyes, when soviet tanks ran over peaceful unarmed, singing people on the night of January 13, 1991, and killed 13 of them, when the global powers were still flirting with bloody-handed Gorbatchev. It was the little brave Iceland, that was the first to recognize Lithuanian independence, and our people will always remain grateful for that.

The black-and-white picture is my little brother David Lukauskas, holding a flag at the doorsteps of Gedimino tower, where about two million people joined hands and formed a human chain – the Baltic Way (the Baltic Chain) of ~700 km length on the 23rd of August, 1989. It marked the 50th anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, which led to the occupation of the Baltic states in 1940. Documents recording the Baltic Way were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2009 in recognition of their value in documenting history.

Similar human chains were recently organized in Taiwan (228 Hand-in-Hand Rally) and Catalonia (Catalan Way). On the 30th anniversary of the Baltic Way, a 30-mile (48 km) human chain called the Hong Kong Way was formed during the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.

We live in turbulent times of a multitude of challenges, but our own future is in our hands. You might have read about our family and Rotary efforts to hack the crisis and fight the pandemic on https://www.rotary.org/en/hacking-solution-covid-19-pandemic, today I call you to stand for peace and human rights together.

Please call the leaders of your countries to condemn the human rights abuse in Belarus, support their people, and join me, tens of thousands of Lithuanians with our former President of Lithuania Ms. Dalia Grybauskaite next Sunday, on August 23, 2020, 7 PM local time (GMT+3 or 9 AM CST / Chicago time), for the new Freedom Way to support freedom, peace and human rights in Belarus.

The black-and-white picture at the top center of this collage is the history of my family. We are safe for 30 years now in Lithuania. The other color pictures are history, happening next door in Belarus today.

Let’s bring more of white color for hope and peace!

Viktorija Trimbel

District 1462 Lithuania Governor 2020-2021