Political crackdown on Belarusian theater following election

For those of you who haven’t been following, or even heard, the tale of the Belarus Free Theater, I’d like to take a moment to share the story with you, along with some links. To begin with, for those of you who don’t know where Belarus is, you’ll find it on the map west and south of Russia, just north of the Ukraine. It’s name means “White Russia,” and, up until 1990, it was a country that had been possessed, or divided, between other countries -- including, as you might guess, Russia. It was part of the Soviet Union until the union collapsed. Now Belarus is its own country, and one fraught with problems. There was an election last month, in which a man named Alexander Lukashenko was reelected with 79 percent of the votes -- an impressive accomplishment, seeing as there were 9 other candidates. Let me name some of the others. There was Uladzimir Niakliajeŭ, who was beaten by the Belarusian militia on election day. There was Mikalai Statkievich, also beaten. There were protests election night, and protesters were arrested. Among the detained were seven presidential candidates. The The State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus, which goes by the unfortunate abbreviation KGB, will certainly prosecute many of the arrested, who may face 15 year prison sentences. And that brings us to the Belarus Free Theater. Wikipedia gives a decent introduction to the troupe, but I’ll summarize very quickly: The troupe started in 1995 in response to Lukashenko, who heavily censored the arts. They performed in cafes and private homes, by invitation only, without letting any press know, and generally kept pretty quiet, by necessity. As you can imagine, they were political. And they took issue with Lukashenko. So on election night, among the hundreds of protesters arrested, there was the theater’s artistic director, Natalia Koliada, along with other members of the company. This was not the first brush they have ad with the law -- soldiers have stormed their shows in the past, and a mass arrest was made in 2007. While members have been released, several have gone into hiding, fearing further reprisal; word is the KGB is searching for them Links:

• If you would like to read more about the current status of the troupe, the New York Times had a piece a few days ago.
• The Telegraph offers more details on the arrests, including an interview with Koliada in which she says she was beaten and threatened with rape after the arrest.
• Whatsonstage.com offers up a report on international support for the theater, much of it coming from the arts community.