US reminded Belarusian regime about its commitments to OSCE
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13:28, — Politics
By imposing sanctions against enterprises of Belneftekhim concern and against some persons undermining democratic processes and institutions in Belarus in no way breached the commitments it undertook in the Helsinki Final Act. This statement was made by Deputy Chief of the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Kyle Scott to the OSCE Permanent Council.
“Our actions are fully consistent with our OSCE obligations and commitments and are taken in support of the Belarusian people,” the US representative said.
“As we all declared and agreed in Moscow in 1991, “commitments undertaken in the human dimension of the OSCE are matters of direct and legitimate concern of all participating States and do not belong exclusively to the internal affairs of the State concerned”, Kyla Scott reminded.
As said by him, the US “are particularly baffled by the charge that our action is designed to further some illegitimate interest or infringe upon the sovereignty of the government of Belarus”.
“Nothing could be further from the truth”, he underlined.
“The U.S. has consistently and repeatedly informed the authorities in Belarus that we will continue to take actions against officials responsible for human rights abuses as well as against entities owned or controlled by such persons.
Our aim is to target only those who are involved in widespread human rights abuses; these sanctions are not targeted at the Belarusian people. Indeed, we are trying to help the people of Belarus exercise basic inalienable freedoms. We note many other OSCE participating States similarly sanction those responsible for abuses in Belarus”, he said.
Mr. Scott urged the Belarusian regime to release Alyaksandr Kazulin and thus “facilitate a dialogue on improved relations”.
