Belarusian opposition figures
Kolesnikova receives Esslingen Human Rights Prize
Maria Kolesnikova, one of the opposition leaders in Belarus, receives the Esslingen Human Rights Prize. Photo: Dmitri Lovetsky/AP/dpa
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The Belarusian opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova was awarded the Theodor Haecker Prize by the city of Esslingen (Baden-Württemberg) for her commitment and political courage.
The Belarusian opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova was awarded the Theodor Haecker Prize by the city of Esslingen (Baden-Württemberg) for her commitment and political courage.
Because the 39-year-old was sentenced to a long prison term, her sister, Taziana Chomitsch, accepted the award for her. While Kolesnikova is serving time in prison, Chomitsch keeps trying to remind her of the situation in her home country and of the prisoners.
According to her, her sister is doing well given the circumstances. “She is so strong and so confident, as far as I can tell,” said Chomitsch of the German Press Agency in Esslingen. “And I am convinced that she is still full of hope for herself and our country.”
Kolesnikova was kidnapped by the KGB secret service in Minsk
During the protests against ruler Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus, Maria Kolesnikova was a symbol of freedom. She became internationally known in the course of the presidential election in August 2020 together with civil rights activist Svetlana Tichanovskaya and Veronika Zepkalo. The other two women are in exile abroad. After allegations of falsification of the vote, Kolesnikova joined the mass protests against Lukashenko, who was criticized as “Europe’s last dictator”. The ruler had the demonstrations suppressed, sometimes bloodily, and declared war on his opponents. Also Kolesnikova.
The activist and musician was kidnapped by the KGB secret service in Minsk. When she was about to be deported to Ukraine, she tore up her passport just before crossing the border, thwarting plans to expel her from the country. She received international recognition for this. At the beginning of September last year, the artist, who also worked as a cultural manager in Stuttgart for a long time, was sentenced to eleven years in a prison camp in an internationally criticized trial. The authoritarian Belarusian state apparatus accuses her of attempting to seize power.
The Theodor Haecker Prize has been awarded every two years since 1995. This time it is endowed with 5000 euros because of its extraordinary award. It is named after the writer and resistance fighter in National Socialism who was born in 1897. Haecker had spent a large part of his life in Esslingen.