Speech by Pavel Latushka at the press conference dedicated to the submission by the Government of Lithuania to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague of materials concerning transborder crimes against humanity committed against Belarusians
October 3, 2024, Warsaw
Opening Remarks
Ms. President-elect Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya,Mr. Chairman of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights Maciej Nowicki,Distinguished members of the diplomatic corps,Honored media representatives,Ladies and gentlemen,
I welcome you all to the "Free Belarus Museum" and thank you for attending today’s press conference dedicated to the submission to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) of materials documenting transborder crimes against humanity committed by the Lukashenko’s regime against the Belarusian people.
For the first time in history, the focus of the ICC will be on the context of large-scale international crimes in Belarus — namely, the crimes against humanity committed by the Lukashenko’s regime.
I emphasize this point: we are speaking about Lukashenko's crimes and those of his accomplices against the Belarusian people.
At the same time, I would like to remind you that today, nearly 1,300 people remain imprisoned by the Lukashenko’s regime. Although 115 people have been released since July under so-called "pardons", at least 142 individuals have been recognized as political prisoners during the same period.
In connection with the "Coordination Council’s case" regarding the elections to the representative body of Belarusian democratic forces, the Lukashenko’s regime has launched 257 criminal cases in absentia. This includes yet another criminal case against me.
Moreover, 105 criminal cases have been initiated against Belarusians abroad for celebrating Freedom Day on March 25th.
And this is just part of the story. The list of examples could go on endlessly.
Why am I telling you this? Because the conveyor belt of repression, along with the crimes against humanity committed by the Lukashenko’s regime, and the persecution of Belarusians abroad, has not stopped—it is gaining momentum.
Crimes against humanity are among the four most serious crimes under international law. Article 5 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court states: "The jurisdiction of the Court shall be limited to the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole. In accordance with this Statute, the Court has jurisdiction with respect to the following crimes:
The crime of genocide
Crimes against humanity
War crimes
The crime of aggression".
Today, we are focusing on the crimes against humanity committed against Belarusians. Thanks to the Lithuanian government's submission, the ICC currently has evidence of three types of crimes against humanity committed by the Lukashenko’s regime:
Deportation
Persecution of Belarusians abroad
Other inhumane acts of comparable severity
Even though Belarus is not a state party to the ICC, the Court can exercise jurisdiction when part of the criminal conduct occurs on the territory of a state party. In this case, the victims crossed the borders of Lithuania, Poland, and other state parties. These crimes, therefore, have a transborder nature.
This transborder character allowed Lithuania, as a state party to the ICC, to submit its referral to the ICC Prosecutor's Office.
I wanted to make this brief introduction so that we all have a clear understanding of what we are going to discuss further today.
Now, I would like to give the floor to Ms. President-elect, Head of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus — Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Pavel Latushka’s Speech
The "Minsk–The Hague" train, with a passenger named Lukashenko on board, has started moving.
It took time. Perhaps more time than we had hoped. But there is no turning back for Lukashenko.
The National Anti-Crisis Management (NAU), with the support of the Justice Hub — Centre for Law and Democracy, initiated this process in April 2023. In September 2023, we officially met for the first time with Lithuania’s Deputy Minister of Justice, Ms. Gabija Grigaitė, to discuss the possibility of submitting a referral to the ICC Prosecutor to investigate crimes against humanity committed by Lukashenko's authoritarian regime.
Now, the Lithuanian government has submitted the referral. And on September 30, 2024, a brief statement appeared on the ICC's website from Prosecutor Karim Khan, saying, "He can confirm that his office will conduct a preliminary examination to study the request".
A short phrase, but one of immense significance. What lies behind it?
First and foremost, it concerns the lives, suffering, and losses of hundreds of thousands of victims. These individuals, having gone through the brutal machinery of repression in Belarus, endured torture, rape, imprisonment, and the deprivation of basic rights. Having no other choice, they fled their homeland in search of refuge in Lithuania, Poland, and other countries. They left behind parents, children, and friends, unable to see them again. They abandoned their property and started life from scratch.
Now, after all that, these repressed people have become victims of a new wave of persecution. The regime continues to pursue Belarusians abroad with terrifying efficiency: court cases, arrests of relatives and friends, hate speech, threats of violence, intimidation, confiscation, and destruction of property in Belarus — these are only part of what Lukashenko and his accomplices are doing today in European countries.
Secondly, for four years, Belarusians lived in a state of complete hopelessness. Our people, who went through hell in their peaceful defense of democratic values, felt abandoned and forgotten.
But now, hundreds of thousands of victims have found hope for justice — the hope that one day, those responsible will be held accountable.
Thirdly, an incredible amount of work has been done. By the Lithuanian Ministry of Justice, lawyers, and experts whose names I cannot reveal. In essence, a new precedent has been set. For the first time in the history of the ICC, a state party to the Rome Statute has referred a situation to the Prosecutor’s Office concerning a state that is not a party to the Statute.
My team and I express our gratitude to Lithuania, the Ministry of Justice, and personally to Deputy Minister Gabija Grigaitė and Director of International Legal Representation, Richard Dzikevicius, for their outstanding work.
I would also like to thank our lawyers and my team, the NAU, European Parliament member Dainius Žalimas and his organization "Justice Hub," as well as international experts who initiated this process in April 2023.
I thank Ms. President-elect Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya for her support.
Special thanks go to the organizations within the International Accountability Platform for Belarus (IAPB), particularly the Human Rights Center "Viasna" and the International Committee for the Investigation of Torture in Belarus.
The work done required exceptional professionalism, creativity, and courage.
Its outcome will be written into history
In the History of Belarus — because this is the first and, so far, the most important step toward achieving justice for the Belarusian people and for the hundreds of thousands of victims of crimes against humanity committed by dictator Lukashenko and his accomplices.
This day will also go down in Lukashenko’s personal criminal history, as he will enter the annals as an international criminal.
Entering his fourth decade in power, Lukashenko has built an entire state apparatus, as he calls it, for "cleansing" society. The entire population disloyal to his regime is subjected to a conveyor belt of atrocities. The society is divided into loyal and disloyal groups. Lukashenko continuously labels Belarusians subjected to repression as "runaways," "politicals," and "troublemakers."
Consider this: in a country of 9 million people, the dictator has already committed hundreds of thousands of crimes against humanity.
At this point, the ICC has evidence of three types of crimes against humanity committed by Lukashenko’s regime:
Deportation
Extraterritorial persecution of Belarusians
Other inhumane acts of comparable severity committed extraterritorially
The Lukashenko’s regime forced the civilian population to flee Belarus by creating an atmosphere of fear and terror. These exiled people had no choice but to leave.
Alexander Lukashenko, together with top government officials, including military personnel, state security officers, law enforcement, judicial authorities, and other structures, has launched a campaign against the civilian population of Belarus, involving unlawful acts such as: Severe restrictions on basic rights; Arbitrary detentions, prosecutions, and convictions; Severe unlawful violence; Murders; Sexual violence; Inflicting physical and psychological harm; Torture, inhumane, and degrading treatment; Intimidation and harassment; Forced labor; Enforced disappearances; and many more.
This campaign is directed against the civilian population of Belarus and the regime’s political opponents. The regime’s actions amount to a widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population, as part of a state policy aimed at eliminating all opposition and dissent.
The top officials implementing and shaping this policy include Alexander Lukashenko himself, Nikolai Karpenkov, Ivan Tertel, Natalia Kochanova, Yuri Karaev, Ivan Kubrakov, Andrei Shved, Dmitry Gora, Sergey Khomenko, Ivan and Natalia Eismont, Grigory Azarenok, Andrey Mukovozchik, and others.
As part of this policy of attack, the Lukashenko’s regime forcibly relocated hundreds of thousands of Belarusians to neighboring Lithuania, Poland, and other states without the consent of these Belarusians.
Exiled Belarusians are subjected to extraterritorial persecution by the regime through campaigns of hate speech, threats of violence, arrests of relatives, and confiscation of property. They are labeled as traitors, and Lukashenko has called them “slaves to the West.” The regime incites hatred and uses propaganda to strip them of their rights.
Deportation is the key objective of the regime's assault on the civilian population—to get rid of all critics and opponents by any means necessary, in order to strengthen Lukashenko's authoritarian power.
According to the 2023 report of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the 2024 report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, around 300,000 Belarusians have been forced to leave Belarus. This is approximately 3.5% of the entire population of the country. These are shocking, horrifying numbers. Every 30th Belarusian has been subjected to exile or deportation!
And this happened as a result of inhumane, brutal, and degrading treatment; politically motivated sentences and imprisonments; torture; rape; murder; deprivation of basic rights.
Most of the victims of deportation are now in Poland and Lithuania. I emphasize this and repeat — we are not talking about dozens, but hundreds of thousands of people.
Did Lukashenko leave these people alone after forcing them to flee Belarus? No. His crimes against humanity continued. The persecution of Belarusians abroad encompasses a range of actions by Lukashenko's regime, which includes:
Threats to life and health;
Persecution of relatives still in Belarus;
Confiscation of property;
In absentia sentencing and politically motivated convictions in violation of fair trial standards;
Denial of access to basic state services (including depriving Belarusians of the ability to renew passports and obtain other necessary documents);
Discriminatory attacks against a specific group of people (whom the regime itself has labeled "runaways");
Use of hate speech.
This machine of mass crimes will not stop on its own unless Lukashenko is moved from the driver’s seat to a seat on the “Minsk–The Hague” train.
And I believe we won’t just succeed. It’s already happening. The time has come for Lukashenko to answer for his crimes.
The time has come for the power of law to prevail over the law of force.
Lukashenko’s train to The Hague started moving on September 30, 2024.And it will reach its destination. There is no longer, and cannot be, a way back for Lukashenko. The process of justice that has been initiated is irreversible.
We call on all democratic countries, especially Poland, where the majority of the victims of Lukashenko's regime’s crimes—evidence of which has been submitted to the ICC—currently reside, to join and support the justice process initiated by Lithuania. Take similar actions to give maximum speed to the "Minsk–The Hague" train.
I thank the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its official position, voiced by spokesperson Paweł Wroński, fully supporting Lithuania's submission to the International Criminal Court on behalf of the Polish MFA. This is a very important signal.
I am confident that we don’t have exaggerated expectations of our partners, but rather a request to use your resources to bring Lukashenko and his accomplices to justice.
Lukashenko has always dreamed of going down in history. He has succeeded. And he will never escape it now. He will be remembered in history books not as the first president, but as the last Belarusian dictator and an international criminal.
And I want not only him to hear this, but also his circle, his closest state officials and propagandists. Ask yourselves, do you want to be Lukashenko’s fellow travelers? Do you want to join him on the train to The Hague?
Or perhaps the time has come to make a decision — and get off this train. Not to board it at all. You know what needs to be done for that. You know where to send the information.
I am sure that among you, there are many who want this. Most of you have not committed any crimes. Some of you were forced to commit them. But you have a chance to help yourselves, your country, Belarusians, and justice. Don’t miss it. Reach out.
Lukashenko thought he could "turn the page" on his crimes. No. His “ballad of the dictator” has come to an end. The next stop is The Hague.In 2020, people took to the streets with signs saying "Lukashenko to The Hague!", "Tribunal!". Did he think these were just slogans from the past? No, this is his future.
The power of law must triumph over the law of force. We must restore the faith of Belarusians in justice. Democracy will surely win if accountability is ensured. The history of a new Belarus will begin with the restoration of justice.
It is crucial that Poland and other democratic countries support Lithuania's efforts.
Use your right under Article 14 of the Rome Statute. Let justice prevail over impunity. This is what the entire Belarusian people want. This is what unites us all. The desire for justice.
I am convinced that the new Belarus will also become a state party to the ICC. This means that impunity for international crimes will become impossible in our country. No international criminal will be able to escape responsibility in the new Belarus.
Long live Belarus!
Comments