Thread by @DunyaCollective

1/14 This video should show Belarusian border guards armed with metal shields pushing migrants towards #Lithuania. It was filmed by Lithuanian border guards & published former Minister for Foreign Affairs & former Minister of Defence of Lithuania @LinkeviciusL

#LeaveNoOneBehind

2/14 There is another video published by the State Border Commitee of #Belarus that should show Lithuanian border guards pushbacking asylum seekers to Belarus.

3/14 The publication of such videos by state authorities or former state officials show clearly that there is a struggle for interpretive authority between both sides. Both blame each other for abuses of asylum seekers.

4/14 It is very clear that the Belarusian dictator Lukaschenkow initiated all this by his public announcements to open the borders end of May. The hopes of people in need of protection are being used by him to pressure the EU.

5/14 But EU and its member states cannot justify human rights violations by treating this issue only as a topic of national defence. Building fences, walls and pushing back asylum seekers can never be a good answer to dictators like Lukaschenko.

6/14 With zones where the state of exception is implemented & press is not allowed to enter independently, legal black boxes have been created by 🇱🇻🇱🇹🇵🇱. If ther is no independent monitoring of the situation in the border regions, human rights violations are ver likely to occur.

7/14 We are fully aware that the EU and its member states are willing to sacrifice fundamental rights for the protection of their borders. A critical & active civil society is needed to encounter this. Unfortunately we do not see this in Lithuania.

8/14 The question remains: In what kind of Europe do we want to live in? It is a very important question looking at the horrible situation in Afghanistan, impacts of climate change and other world wide instabilities. This will force more people to flee. Laurinas Kasčiūnas the

9/14 chairman of the commitee for National Security and Defence told us in a yesterdays interview he gave to us, that fences and walls are a way to meet these challenges. Is this really the way Europe wants to keep on going? Instead of a closed door policy we need Or save and

10/14 humane passages for refugees. Otherwise, we force people to use dangerous and often deadly escape routes. But the core of the question leads much further. It is a question of global capitalism and its mechanisms of exploitation and (natural) destruction.

11/14 A simple "Refugees welcome!" is a good gesture, but it is not by far enough to solve the problem. We are in a great need for a fundamental change in our society, our means of production and consumption. If we really want to overcome human rights violations and deaths at

12/14 EU's external borders. If we want to face the reasons why people have to flee, we have to talk about capitalism. There is no way around it. As long there is war & exploitation which creates massive global inequalities people will flee because they suffer and

13/14 and governments will use them for their own political interests. The current situation we see at the border line between Belarus and EU member states is just a symptom of a system that needs to be overcome in order to create justice and dignity.

14/14 The current brutal border regime of the EU which is build on social inequality, racism and neo-colonialism is an essential part of the capitalist system. Perspectives to overcome capitalism should therefore be included in all struggles related to the rights of refugees.