Ales Bialiatski: "These words are not for me alone"

The imprisoned head of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" Ales Bialiatski keeps receiving letters and postcards from all over the world. Though the holiday fuss is already over, sometimes he receives as many as 100 letters a day. The geographical spread of the authors is still impressive – Poland, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Czech, Island, USA, Ireland, Canada, Japan, Turkey, Kenya and so on.

Some people accurately copy the words "Алесь, я думаю пра цябе, я жадаю табе дабра!" ("Ales, I am thinking of you, I wish you well!", proposed by "Amnesty International" within the framework of the solidarity campaign. Others write these words in their own languages. There are also people
who say more, share their own vision of his situation or cheer him up.

"Hollie from Edinburgh (Canada) wrote that 1/3rd of the cases dealt with by "Amnesty International" end up positively. That's where I started reflecting: "does my case belong to this lucky 1/3rd or the unlucky 2/3rds? I don't know, the time will show," writes Ales and continues looking for sources for optimism in order letters. "I received a postcard from Kenya, from relatives and some guys who I know quite well. I remember one of them since the time he was three year old... To be on the safe side, they wrote the address as: EUROPE, BELARUS. Maybe this is well-justified in Africa. But it looks quite symbolic, Belarus in Europe. We still need to get conscious about it and understand it."

"I know quite a lot about your situation. Several days ago I organized the "Belarusian Days" in the Lodz University. We, students, held a discussion about You and Your struggle for human rights... Please, be strong!", quotes Ales a letter from Marta, a student from the Polish city of Zgesz. And then confesses: "To be sincere, I feel uncanny when reading such letters. It always seems that it is not for me and not about me. By quoting them I feel at ease. I think, moreover, I am convinced that now these words sound not for me alone."

Ales Bialiatski has repeatedly emphasized in his letters that the words of solidarity he keeps receiving from abroad are the words of support to all Belarusians.