BRUSSELS (AP) — Lithuania on Monday referred the hard-line president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, and members of his regime to the International Criminal Court, accusing them of committing crimes against humanity by forcing their own people to flee the country.
Opposition groups in Belarus have faced a severe crackdown since nationwide protests erupted in 2020 after disputed election results gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office. Hundreds of thousands of people fled the country and opposition leaders were either forced into exile or sent to prison.
In its referral to the ICC, Lithuania said there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Lukashenko’s regime has been involved in “deportation, persecution and other inhumane acts” against Belarus civilians.
It said that the regime in Minsk “has forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands of lawful residents of Belarus to the territories of neighboring Lithuania,” and other countries that are signatories to the court.
The Lithuanian government claimed that the goal of the regime was “to rid itself, by any means, of all critics and opponents in order to consolidate the regime’s authoritarian hold on power. All direct perpetrators, their commanders and superiors were clearly aware of the attack.”
Lithuania said this “amounts to a widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population.”
As Lukashenko seeks a seventh term next year to extend his three-decade rule, opposition leaders in exile say he is ramping up the pressure on Belarusians who moved abroad. The aim, they say, is to quash any opposition support from abroad.
Months of major demonstrations over the widely denounced ballot in 2020 saw more than 65,000 people arrested over the last four years, with many of them severely beaten, according to the Belarusian human rights group Viasna.
