365 days of resistance: an art installation in Estonia pays tribute to Belarus’ political prisoners
Image: Chrysalis Magazine via Instagram
10 August 2021
Text:
Lucía de la Torre
Artists and activists have filled Tallinn’s Freedom Square with hundreds of empty chairs to symbolise the 605 Belarusian political prisoners arrested in the last year as part of the country’s pro-democracy movement.
The installation was unveiled on 9 August, 12 months after Belarus’ presidential election sparked anti-government protests across the country. The demonstrations unleashed an unprecedented wave of police brutality, with thousands of people beaten and jailed by the authorities. Each of the white plastic chairs were marked with a name tag to commemorate an individual political prisoner, as well as a number recording how long they had spent in prison.
Among the hundreds commemorated in Tallinn was opposition politician Viktor Babariko, who has already been sentenced to more than a decade behind bars on trumped-up corruption charges. Others included student Maria Kalenik, who has been in prison for 270 days for allegedly organising mass riots. She was jailed alongside nine other students from the Belarusian Academy of Arts, and one of their tutors.
Politician Vitold Ashurka, who died in a Belarusian prison on 21 May 2021 was also commemorated. The 51-year-old was imprisoned on 9 August 2020, after taking part in a peaceful protest. According to official records, Ashurka died from unspecified causes, although his family later found marks of violence on his body. Prison officials said that the corpse had fallen from the morgue refrigerator. Ashurka’s chair in Tallinn was decorated with a bouquet with white-and-red flowers, the colours of the historic Belarusian flag that have come to symbolise the protests.
Tens of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets on 9 August 2020 after an election described by the UN as “neither free nor fair” saw President Alexander Lukashenko take office for the sixth time in his then 26-year rule. More than 35,000 people have been arrested in the wave of repressions that followed, according to the Viasna Human Rights Centre.
