The Fort Worth Press - 'Premature adults': The lost childhoods of Belarus's crackdown

USD -
AED 3.67298
AFN 67.384996
ALL 90.930513
AMD 386.175669
ANG 1.798582
AOA 911.49704
ARS 987.764796
AUD 1.520288
AWG 1.8
AZN 1.696955
BAM 1.807328
BBD 2.014989
BDT 119.253338
BGN 1.80481
BHD 0.376977
BIF 2900.548912
BMD 1
BND 1.322749
BOB 6.895532
BRL 5.762597
BSD 0.99793
BTN 83.886707
BWP 13.395803
BYN 3.265906
BYR 19600
BZD 2.01157
CAD 1.39255
CDF 2910.000154
CHF 0.86748
CLF 0.034741
CLP 958.597109
CNY 7.1227
CNH 7.119295
COP 4362.01
CRC 512.311083
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 101.894377
CZK 23.446801
DJF 177.71268
DKK 6.89063
DOP 60.103407
DZD 133.516994
EGP 48.737904
ERN 15
ETB 119.252592
EUR 0.923535
FJD 2.280598
FKP 0.765169
GBP 0.770975
GEL 2.730049
GGP 0.765169
GHS 16.216791
GIP 0.765169
GMD 69.510995
GNF 8607.019424
GTQ 7.714273
GYD 208.788061
HKD 7.771398
HNL 25.174192
HRK 6.88903
HTG 131.517179
HUF 376.946015
IDR 15658.85
ILS 3.712875
IMP 0.765169
INR 84.0917
IQD 1307.316983
IRR 42104.999989
ISK 137.15044
JEP 0.765169
JMD 157.879417
JOD 0.709304
JPY 153.00603
KES 128.999956
KGS 85.801853
KHR 4056.776388
KMF 455.449632
KPW 899.999774
KRW 1379.264996
KWD 0.30657
KYD 0.831685
KZT 489.206572
LAK 21877.743381
LBP 89415.792635
LKR 293.064732
LRD 191.612838
LSL 17.675809
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.817306
MAD 9.845031
MDL 17.88838
MGA 4613.124116
MKD 56.926531
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3398.000028
MOP 7.985954
MRU 39.458485
MUR 46.110014
MVR 15.360218
MWK 1730.476006
MXN 20.14388
MYR 4.37901
MZN 63.909949
NAD 17.675809
NGN 1641.570371
NIO 36.723529
NOK 10.958145
NPR 134.220156
NZD 1.670945
OMR 0.384997
PAB 0.997921
PEN 3.756261
PGK 3.99671
PHP 58.228038
PKR 277.18023
PLN 4.009161
PYG 7944.443418
QAR 3.638497
RON 4.59426
RSD 108.085005
RUB 97.018184
RWF 1357.199292
SAR 3.755738
SBD 8.333542
SCR 13.606272
SDG 601.491881
SEK 10.670155
SGD 1.323685
SHP 0.765169
SLE 22.700818
SLL 20969.496802
SOS 570.343435
SRD 34.328008
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.731772
SYP 2512.530268
SZL 17.680625
THB 33.770499
TJS 10.628101
TMT 3.5
TND 3.091161
TOP 2.342098
TRY 34.291785
TTD 6.763388
TWD 31.984997
TZS 2720.000316
UAH 41.276464
UGX 3657.533614
UYU 41.528439
UZS 12758.859677
VEF 3622552.534434
VES 42.245336
VND 25295
VUV 118.722039
WST 2.801184
XAF 606.158083
XAG 0.029645
XAU 0.000367
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.750095
XOF 606.166485
XPF 110.206533
YER 250.325026
ZAR 17.68735
ZMK 9001.201112
ZMW 26.570499
ZWL 321.999592
  • CMSC

    -0.0200

    24.55

    -0.08%

  • BCE

    -0.1250

    32.335

    -0.39%

  • CMSD

    0.0150

    24.855

    +0.06%

  • SCS

    0.0550

    12.265

    +0.45%

  • BCC

    4.7950

    136.435

    +3.51%

  • RBGPF

    -2.0000

    61

    -3.28%

  • RIO

    -0.4800

    66.1

    -0.73%

  • RYCEF

    0.0400

    7.25

    +0.55%

  • NGG

    -0.1000

    65.02

    -0.15%

  • JRI

    0.0260

    13.006

    +0.2%

  • GSK

    -1.1450

    37.025

    -3.09%

  • VOD

    0.1200

    9.4

    +1.28%

  • RELX

    -0.8100

    47.1

    -1.72%

  • BP

    0.0800

    29.44

    +0.27%

  • BTI

    -0.0300

    34.43

    -0.09%

  • AZN

    -2.0700

    73.15

    -2.83%

'Premature adults': The lost childhoods of Belarus's crackdown
'Premature adults': The lost childhoods of Belarus's crackdown / Photo: © AFP

'Premature adults': The lost childhoods of Belarus's crackdown

One night in September 2020, Hanna Kanavalava fled her native Belarus and crossed the border into Ukraine -- on foot, in the dark and with her two young grandchildren in tow.

Text size:

"That's when Ivan asked me, 'Grandma, is Mum in prison?' And that's when I told him the truth," Hanna said.

Ivan, now nine, and his sister Anastasiya, seven, have lived in exile for almost four years, separated from both their parents, who were jailed in Belarus for opposing the strongman President Alexander Lukashenko.

They are just two among hundreds of children forced apart from their parents by Lukashenko's crackdown on dissent, a campaign that has jailed hundreds of regime critics following 2020 protests that threatened his quarter-century grip on power.

Ivan and Anastasiya's mother, Antanina Kanavalava, worked for Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the opposition leader who claimed victory against Lukashenko in presidential elections that summer.

Rights groups and independent monitors say the vote was marred by rampant fraud and ballot stuffing as official results showed Lukashenko, in power since 1994, won with 80 percent.

His riot police responded forcefully against the protestors and a wave of arrests and tightening repression followed.

- Letters -

Antanina was arrested in September 2020 and sentenced to five and a half years in prison, while the children's father, Siarhei Yarashevich, was given two sentences totalling six years and three months.

The outlawed Viasna human rights group estimates Belarus has 1,400 political prisoners.

Hanna Kanavalava, 60, whisked the children out of the country just four days after their mother was arrested.

She took them briefly to Ukraine, and then to Poland, which has become a shelter for many of the hundreds of thousands that have fled.

Hanna feared Belarusian authorities would take custody of Ivan and Anastasiya if they stayed, potentially using them to pressure their parents.

The children write their parents letters, though correspondence with political prisoners, when permitted, is heavily restricted and censored.

Anastasiya read out parts of one of them for an AFP reporter: "Hi Mum, how are you? I'm doing fine. I came fourth in the chess tournament. A big, big, big hug."

The children are allowed a maximum five-minute video call once a month with their mum, under the supervision of prison guards.

- 'Look after mum and dad' -

Hanna worries that her grandchildren, especially the younger Anastasiya, are starting to forget their parents.

But Anastasiya -- who says she wants to become a "doctor or veterinary surgeon... to earn lots of money" -- said she wanted to help.

"I want to spend all this money to look after mum and dad. And to buy them a ticket to Warsaw when they are released," she said.

Her mother, Antanina, has developed serious eyesight problems in jail.

She is set for release next year -- if the sentence is not increased.

Then, "my mission will be to help her to be reborn, to look after herself... and to reconnect with her children," Hanna said, whispering so the children could not hear.

- Nightmares -

Experts fear the emotional and psychological damage the situation inflicts on the children of those behind bars.

Volha Vialichka, a psychologist from Belarus, told AFP she has met 60 children of political prisoners and sees a lot of "pain, despair and anger".

Many resemble "premature adults", she said.

"They are very sensitive to moments that remind them of their circumstances, when they say to themselves, 'I am alone, without mum and dad.'"

While safe from repression in Poland, Hanna and the children still face instability.

They have no stable accommodation due to a lack of income, and rely on support from the Belarusian and Ukrainian diaspora, as well as the Polish state.

For Ivan, a recent move to a new apartment on the outskirts of Warsaw reawakened the trauma of their escape from Belarus.

He has nightmares of "his parents being taken away by soldiers" and a "wolf in a forest", Hanna said.

She regularly takes the children to demonstrations organised by Belarus's opposition in exile.

- 'Be strong' -

Since May 2023, Hanna has also been responsible for two other children -- Marcel and Timur Zhuravlyov, brothers aged five and 15.

Their mother, Olga Zhuravlyova, another Belarusian political opponent who fled to Poland, died last April after falling into depression and suffering a drug overdose.

"My mum died because there was nobody there for her," Timur said.

Marcel, who was playing football in a Spiderman cap when AFP visited the group, cried a lot when he realised his mother had gone, his brother said. Now he doesn't talk about it.

Hanna said Timur looked like a "scared kitten" at first, but his confidence has grown.

Their experience has forced the children to become "more solid", she said.

"You have to form a team and be strong," she said, before adding: "Nobody will ever replace their mum."

T.Gilbert--TFWP