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Coming to Ireland for the first time in the 1990s made Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya realise that things weren’t normal in her home country.
Aged 12, she tried ketchup and crisps for the first time when she came to Roscrea in Tipperary, as one of the Chernobyl children who were taken in by Irish families for respite during the summer months.
“The gap between life in Belarus and Ireland was very, very deep,” she told the Irish Independent, speaking via video link from Vilnius in Lithuania.
“For the first time in my life, I saw all those big malls and tried ketchup.
Coming to Ireland for the first time in the 1990s made Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya realise that things weren’t normal in her home country.
Aged 12, she tried ketchup and crisps for the first time when she came to Roscrea in Tipperary, as one of the Chernobyl children who were taken in by Irish families for respite during the summer months.
“The gap between life in Belarus and Ireland was very, very deep,” she said speaking via video link from Vilnius in Lithuania.
“For the first time in my life, I saw all those big malls and tried ketchup.
Updated: 18 Dec 2020, 18:41
The exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has called on the Irish government to “be more vocal” in support for pro-democracy activists in her home country.
The Belarusians have been locked in a brutal five-month standoff with the Alexander Lukashenko regime, which is accused of rigging the country’s presidential elections last August.
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Svetlana casts her ballot at a polling station during the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020Credit: AP:Associated Press
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Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has met with Ms TikhanovskayaCredit: REUTERS
The election result saw Mr Lukashenko receiving 80% of the vote despite a massive show of public opposition to his 26-year rule.