Students for Global Democracy, a new non-partisan, student-run move­ment promoting non-violent demo­cratic reforms worldwide, is taking aim at Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenka. This week SGD launched the BELL Campaign, a fundraising and support effort intended to raise money for Belarusian student activists work­ing against the Lukashenka regime. BELL , shorthand for “Belarus Endow­ment for Life and Liberty ,” was started by student activists with the intention of directly funding and supporting dis­sident movements in Belarus rather than going through the bureaucratic process of some democracy-promot­ing Non Government Organizations (NGOs) in the region.

Belarus , a former Soviet republic, is commonly referred to as Europe ’s last true dictatorship. Since coming to power in 1994, Belarusian President Lukashenka has earned scorn across Europe and America for violently repressing political discourse and deny­ing his people basic rights. Charges against him range from falsifying elec­tion results to beating peaceful protes­tors and instigating the murder of journalists and politicians to censoring independent media. Recently, Lukash­enka demanded that all radio stations submit transcripts of their broadcasts in advance so that the regime’s cen­sors can vet any hint of criticism of the dictator. Additionally, many NGOs promoting democratic reform in Belarus have been asked to leave by the regime.

Last week, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Europe for a summit with Russian president Vladi­mir Putin, said that Belarus is “the last remaining true dictatorship in the heart of Europe .” Though she denied that the US is trying to foment a revolution in the country, Rice later added “if [revo­lution] brings about democratic prog­ress, why is it a bad thing for people to throw off the yoke of tyranny and decide they want to control their own futures?”

SGD President Charlie Szrom agreed and noted that “in America , we fought for and won our liberty over two centuries ago with the help of others. Unfortunately, the Belarusian people still don’t have their freedom, so hope­fully the BELL campaign will help them achieve it by getting important information out to the Belarusian people themselves.”

In order to get expert advice and aid with the BELL project, SGD has formed relationships with individual scholars in the National Endowment for Democracy, Sagamore Institute of Policy Research, Project for a New American Century, and the German Marshall Fund.

According to Szrom, money raised through the effort goes directly to the pro-democratic student group Zubr who then uses the money to print inde­pendent newspapers which are banned under Lukashenka’s regime. Since the Belarusian economy is extremely underdeveloped, American dollars go a long way there. For instance, $25 American dollars pays for the printing of 1562 pro-democratic newspapers.

Unfortunately, Zubr and SGD have to first bypass the Soviet-era KGB security force, which Lukashenka kept after independence. The Belarusian KGB is known for confiscating banned materials such as non-state-run newspa­pers, cell phones, and any other instru­ment which could possibly be used to “undermine” the regime.

Szrom is currently studying in Poland and recently met with the Zubr leaders in Slovakia during the Bratislava Sum­mit in February to discuss SGD’s strat­egy. Highlighting the KGB’s shadow over dissident movements in Belarus , one leader of Zubr admitted he first called the American National Endow­ment for Democracy to get confirma­tion that Szrom and SGD were not Lukashenka agents. After the Zubr activists thanked Szrom and America for their support and pledged to work closely to bring their message to the American and Belarusian people.

In Belarus presidential elections are set to take place in 2006, but it is virtu­ally certain that the vote will be rigged by the regime. Yet many democratic activists remain optimistic, noting the revolutions that have taken place in other countries like Ukraine , Georgia , and Kyrgyzstan after the people pro­tested fraud in their elections. Lukash­enka, however, has also taken note of those revolutions and is preparing for a similar scenario. The man who claims Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler as his idols has increased police control around the capital and has become more brutal with dissenters.

“A lot can happen between now and the elections,” Szrom said. “So SGD has spent a lot of time getting the BELL campaign initiated in order to have the maximum possible influence.”

SGD has several American chap­ters working on the BELL campaign. Chapters are located on college cam­puses in Berkeley , Indiana , New York City , and Ontario . A SGD chapter was recently formed at Stanford and is cur­rently looking for a leadership corps to begin activities immediately.

The author is a member of the Students for Global Democracy Board of Directors and founder of the Stanford SGD chapter. He can be reached at jfairbanks@stanford.edu.