Human Rights Foundation Asks Tyga to Cancel Concert in Belarus
The United States–based nonprofit organization Human Rights Foundation (HRF) has sent a letter to Tyga, asking the rapper to cancel an apparent performance in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, as The Hollywood Reporter points out.
The “Hip Hop Fireworks” concert, which also lists Saint JHN on the bill, is currently scheduled to take place on Saturday, August 8, the day before the country is set to hold an election that could result in the unseating of current president Alexander G. Lukashenko.
“This performance, scheduled for the day before Belarus’ elections, is no coincidence,” HRF president and founder Thor Halvorssen wrote in his letter to Tyga. “It is an excuse to cancel the opposition’s final electoral rally, and prevent ordinary Belarusians from showing their support for freedom and democracy. It is also a deliberate attempt to turn attention away from the massive electoral fraud that is already taking place across the country.”
Halvorssen continued:
Tyga has been an outspoken advocate of the Black Lives Matter movement. He has urged followers to vote in local elections and take to the streets in protest. His support for Lukashenko’s regime will greatly undermine the activism he has encouraged in the United States, and provide the Belarusian dictator a useful propaganda stunt. We hope he will stand on the side of the people of Belarus as opposed to their oppressor. He must decline the invitation to perform for the dictator.
Pitchfork has reached out to representatives for Tyga and Saint JHN for comment and more information.
Alexander Lukashenko is considered an authoritarian and has held power in Belarus since 1994. U.S. Senators Dick Durbin, Marco Rubio, and Ben Cardin recently introduced a resolution calling for “a free, fair, and transparent presidential election in Belarus taking place on August 9, 2020, including the unimpeded participation of all presidential candidates.” They write that “in the most recent 2010 and 2015 presidential elections, Lukashenko arbitrarily disqualified or jailed key opponents ahead of and after the elections.”
According to The Washington Post, Lukashenko jailed two of his political rivals ahead of the August 9 election and denied another’s candidacy registration. His most notable challenger is now Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the wife of would-be candidate Sergei Tikhanovsky, who was arrested in May.
Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
