World Stars Support Belarusians In Their Fight For Freedom
Charter97.org, 4 January 2014 British stars put their signatures to support the campaign F*** Realpolitik. The campaign was launched by the Belarus Free Theatre and the initiative Free Belarus Now. The world stars urge the EU leaders to toughen pressure on the Lukashenka regime to free and rehabilitate the political prisoners, investigate cases of politically motivated abductions, abolish the death penalty in the country and release the bodies of executed people to their families. Eight stars of theatre, cinema and music joined the campaign and signed postcards for the EU leadership. Sir Tom Stoppard, playwright, script writer, director, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, member of the Order of Merit, laureate of the Praemium Imperiale, Oscar award winner, winner of plenty of theatre and cinema awards.Director of the Belarus Free Theatre Natalia Kaliada, one of the initiators of the campaign Fuck Realpolitik, comments on the step by prominent British cultural figures: “More than 3,000 people sent postcards to to the EU leaders as part of the campaign. In 2011, twenty cultural figures, including late Vaclav Havel, signed the Artist Manifesto for Belarus saying that artists have no executive powers, but they have a voice that can be heard. The aim of foreign actors with civic awareness is to make politicians of their countries answer both before the Belarusians and their prominent fellow countrymen concerned about human rights violations in Belarus. The task of us, the people living outside Belarus, is to make people remember about it and wake up those able to help the people under the pressure of the dictatorship.”
|