Anti-Lukashenko Cartoon Campaign Continues Amid Pressure on Belarus

NEW YORK, March 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- A cartoon campaign against Alexander Lukashenko , the last dictator of Europe, launched by "Belarusians in Exile", a pro-democratic non-for-profit, continues to draw attention of the media and general public to the human rights catastrophe that takes place in Belarus.

In the new cartoon, available for free under Creative Commons license, the mustachioed dictator rather nonchalantly consumes giant bags of cash arriving from Germany, Lithuania and other countries. Ilya Lushnikov, communications director for BiE says: "The cartoon is factually accurate. Despite existing EU and US sanctions against Belarus, the Lukashenko regime sells oil, potash and other products to Europe and receives most of its revenues from the EU. The money is directed to finance the state and its activities to oppress democracy. We and other Belarusian organizations call on the EU to expand sanctions against Lukashenko and ban the state companies from selling to the EU clients."

Alexander Lukashenko has been elected president of Belarus in 1994 and since then he managed to dismantle all democratic institutions in the country, and the people are deprived of basic rights, such as free press, right to vote and right for political protests.

"We are happy to see that pressure on Lukashenko to accept changes has recently increased. But without expanded sanctions, the regime will continue to abuse power. It is our goal to bring attention to this issue in Europe and the US and work with the governments and other pro-democratic organizations to use political and economic tools to develop democratic institutions in the country and fight for release and rehabilitation of political prisoners," says Lushnikov.

The anti-Lukashenko cartoon series is available for free for bloggers and media alike from the BiE site, belarusiansinexile.org.

Ilya Lushnikov 
office@belorussians.org 
+1 (646) 583-2525
www.belorussians.org

 

 

 

SOURCE Belarusians in Exile

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