Anatol Lyabedzka: Why do other European countries keep silence?

Representatives of the Belarusian opposition wonder why the EU countries keep silence about cruel actions of the authorities on dispersal of peaceful rallies.

The Political Council of the United Civil Party adopted a special statement on the dispersal of the peaceful rally held on September 16 on Solidarity Day in Minsk and dedicated to the tenth anniversary of disappearance of Viktar Hanchar and Anatol Krasouski.

UCP leader Anatol Lyabedzka told in an interview to Radio Svaboda that the document was addressed to the world community.

“We welcome the reaction of Sweden, the country holding the EU presidency,” the Belarusian politician told. “It expressed its concern over dispersal of a peaceful rally in Minsk. Sweden called on the authorities to restrain from using force against peaceful rallies and allow representatives of independent media to do their work without external interference.”

Anatol Lyabedzka said it’s was strange for him that other European countries keep silence.

“We don’t understand why the other European capitals keep silence,” Lyabedzka said. “We expected the national governments to express an appropriate reaction to the brutal actions of the Belarusian authorities on dispersal of an absolute peaceful rally. We hope that our statement will attract attention of the parliaments and governments of many countries. We think they analyze the situation in Belarus before announcing a decision on Belarus in Brussels in October.”

We remind that dozens of participants of peaceful rallies were detained on September 9 and 16 as a result of brutal actions of the authorities. The people were beaten and tortured. People in mufti used force to hinder work of representatives of Belarusian and foreign mass media during the rallies.