Nearly 24 hours after Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko stole an election and launched a brutal crackdown against his people, the Trump administration has yet to condemn the violence. It’s an inexcusable abdication of American moral leadership.
The evidence is clear. Lukashenko intimidated his political opponents against turning up to vote, and his security forces prevented some from voting. Then, when it became clear that a majority of Belarusians had voted against the man who has ruled as dictator for 26 years, Lukashenko simply declared victory. An obvious follower of the Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Un school of electoral mathematics, Lukashenko claimed he secured 80% of the vote. His main opposition opponent, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, supposedly received just 10% of the vote. The ludicrous gall of this claim is measured by those polling stations that showed the courage to count accurately. They gave Tsikhanouskaya a clear margin of victory. Calling for new elections and a peaceful transfer of power, Tsikhanouskaya on Monday stated, “I consider myself the winner of this election.”
Lukashenko shows no signs of yielding. “The orders are coming from over there [abroad],” the dictator responded. “Our response will be robust. We will not allow the country to be torn apart.”
Absurdly, Lukashenko says the Czech Republic, among other nations, is to blame for the situation. Considering the bloody rampage Lukashenko’s security forces imposed upon tens of thousands of peaceful protesters overnight, which saw one protester run over and killed, we can expect further brutality in the hours and days to come.
The normally docile European Union has stepped up to identify this injustice. The Trump administration, however, has not.
I reached out on Sunday afternoon to see whether Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would issue a statement. As of publication, he has not done so. Instead, his most recent tweets address Russian efforts “to stifle independent information and free speech” and China’s arrest of a Hong Kong media mogul. Stolen elections apparently merit less concern.
It seems clear what’s going on here. President Trump is focused on reelection and can’t be bothered with foreign chaos. At the same time, Pompeo seems determined not to undermine his carefully constructed partnership with Lukashenko. Witnessing increasing tensions between Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pompeo visited Belarus in February. Pompeo’s focus was on moving Belarus out of the Russian orbit and toward a more energy-independent foreign policy. And to be clear, this was and remains a worthy focus. But this realism cannot come at the expense of sacred American values.
As Pompeo noted during a speech celebrating the 30th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall, at the dividing line between freedom and tyranny, the United States must stand with those who seek freedom.
As Belarusians are beaten and murdered in order to lay Lukashenko’s bloody red carpet back into power, America cannot be a silent observer. The U.S. must demand free elections and be ready to reimpose sanctions on Belarus. If this strategy forces Lukashenko back into Putin’s orbit, so be it. America’s place must be alongside those standing for freedom.
