Opposition leader calls for international pressure on Lukashenko regime

Belarusian opposition politician Sviatlana Tsikhauskaya on Tuesday called on international community to put pressure on Belarusian authorities over reports of human rights abuses in wake of contested presidential elections last month.

"I refuse, as do millions of Belarusians, to accept that world will simply stand and watch se countless abuses of human rights," she said.

Tsikhauskaya me comments in a speech to Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe by videolink.

She was speaking from Lithuania, where she took refuge after elections after leaving Belarus under pressure from authorities in Minsk.

Tsikhauskaya told assembly that Belarus needed help and called for international sanctions on individuals who violate human rights.

"We need international pressure on this regime, on this one individual, desperately clinging onto power," she said.

Tsikhauskaya went on to warn or countries from making deals with regime of Alexander Lukashenko, saying y do so "at ir own risk."

"y cant and should t expect that Belarusians and ir fairly and democratically elected government will uphold treaties that are me against ir will by an illegitimate regime," she said.

She also told assembly that Maria Kolesnikova, an opposition activist, h been kidnapped Monday, toger with two or staff members of campaign of Viktor Babariko, a presidential candidate who was barred from standing in election.

A spokesman for Belarus' Border Guard Committee confirmed that Kolesnikova is in custody of Belarusian authorities.

Belarus has applied similar tactics with or opposition figures, seeking to end a month of demonstrations against reelection of Lukashenko in a vote that protesters see as rigged.

Lukashenko has ruled country for 26 years, relentlessly stifling dissent and keeping most of ecomy in state hands.