Supporting People of Belarus and Their Democratic Aspirations and Condemning Election Rigging and Subsequent Violent Crackdowns on Peaceful Protesters

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend for yielding and for his leadership, as well as Chairman Meeks. I especially want to thank Chairman Keating for authoring this very, very important resolution and for his hearing that he held in March on the situation in Belarus.

Madam Speaker, the resolution condemns Alyaksandr Lukashenka's ongoing and ever-worsening brutality and crackdown on peaceful protestors.

As my colleagues know, the leading opposition presidential candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who almost certainly won the election in August and helped form the Coordination Council as a means to seek a peaceful transition of power, needs our consistent and robust support and encouragement.

Today, Ms. Tsikhanouskaya is in exile in Lithuania, where she continues to rally the Belarusian people and the world and to demand democracy and human rights for her nation, no matter how long it takes.

More than 8 months have passed since the stolen August presidential election, and about 5 months since President Trump signed the Belarus Democracy, Human Rights, and Sovereignty Act of 2020, which I authored.

Let me point out to my colleagues that I first authored the Belarus Democracy Act in the year 2004. It was enacted into law and reauthorized in 2006 and 2011. What it did was focus on denying visas to human rights abusers and made people who are singled out ineligible for participating in our economy.

In retaliation, I was told I could not visit Belarus. I was denied a visa repeatedly. I finally got there twice and raised human rights issues with Lukashenka himself.

Let me just say that a resolution like this has real impact. Just last week, as a result of an outcry from human rights organizations, the government released Tatsiana Hatsura-Yavorska, the director of the Watch Docs Film Festival in Belarus, and they dropped the charges because of the outcry.

Again, I want to thank Mr. Keating, the chairman, for doing this.

Let me remind my colleagues, too, that the Russians continue to play a very, very destructive role in the country. This past week alone, Russian authorities detained Yuras Zyankovich, a Belarusian lawyer and U.S. citizen.

Madam Speaker, I urge passage.

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