I asked an activist from Civil Forum if he wasn't thinking of leaving Belarus . His answer was that he would not leave until Lukasjenko was no longer in power. Such courage and fighting spirit is needed to fight the last dictatorship in Europe.

This weekend IFLRY and LYMEC together with a couple member organizations met Civil Forum from Belarus in Vilnius, Lithuania, to discuss how we can help them the most. Belarusians really need the support of young people outside their country.

Since the last presidential election Lukasjenko's repressive machine has unfortunately been very effective in diminishing the opposition. Students are afraid of getting involved in political organizations as they might get expelled. More and more people are leaving politics to continue living a more normal life. The Belarusian opposition therefore needs our support more than ever.

It is important for the opposition to have continuous contact with the outside world and thus attend events outside Belarus. We therefore wish that Civil Forum could get the possibility to attend IFLRY's events more consequently.

Meeting two activists from Civil Forum in Vilnius this weekend was instrumental in order to revitalize our contacts with the Belarusian opposition. The workshop was held together with LYMEC and a total of fifteen people from different organizations supporting the Belarusian opposition made us all draw some co

In order to help Civil Forum, we need to both raise awareness of the country's situation in our own countries and help strengthen the liberal opposition within Belarus.