Democratic opposition protestors who were arrested over the past week following historic demonstrations have gone on a hunger strike. They are rotting in prison cells after having their bodies battered and bruised by riot police for absolutely no reason; being denied even the most basic human rights.

Twenty political prisoners in Belarus are on hunger strike, rights advocates have said, drawing attention to conditions at a jail where about 400 opposition supporters are being held.

The rights defenders said on Tuesday that the prisoners are being held in crowded conditions, and are being denied water and the right to receive care packages.

The activists were taken to detention at Zhodino, about 50km east of the capital, from Minsk’s central square after police broke up a camp of demonstrators campaigning against the results of presidential elections on March 19 regarded by many in Belarus and abroad as fraudulent.

Up to 18 inmates were squeezed into cells designed to accommodate five, the rights advocates said.

“People are protesting ÄagainstÅ the mockery and terrible conditions of confinement in the jail,” said Valentin Stefanovich, an activist from the Vyasna rights centre, referring to 20 prisoners who have entered the fifth day of their hunger strike.

Over 1000 people were arrested who were protesting against the Lukashenko regime. They are a mix of hardcore activists who camped out overnight on October Square and simple supporters who tried to bring the former food. The prisons in Minsk are so crowded, in fact, that many of the detainees have had to be brough to prisoners just outside of the city. Like the article says, several times the capacity of people are being squeezed into tiny cells and being denied basic care. Family members and friends don’t know where their loved ones are and can’t bring them food. Most are going to be sentenced for fifteen days of administrative detention simply for protesting. They are prisoners of conscience.

The point of the hunger strike is both to protest the regime as well as to draw both international and domestic sympathy toward their cause. The EU and U.S. are going to be slapping sanctions on Belarus, but the best thing they can do is use pressure to get these people released and back out campaigning for the opposition. These are some of the most important grassroots actors in the democratic movement and are necessary for spreading the word.