Stanislau Shushkevich: EU should not follow dictator's lead again

The first head of independent Belarus criticised attempts of European politicians to establish a dialogue with Lukashenka again.

Stanislau Shushkevich said in an interview with charter97.org that similar steps had been made before, but all of them proved to be unsuccessful.

“The EU already had experience of following the dictator's lead. It was done by Javier Solana and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who visited Belarus. The attempt failed. It will be very bad if they choose this way again,” the politician said.

Stanislau Shushkevich commented on the visit of European Parliament's Rapporteur on Belarus Justas Paleckis to Minsk.  

“It is too early to speak about results of the visit. I don't think a representative of Lithuania will take a wrong stance on Belarus. Justas Paleckis has not made any statements so far. His position can be estimated only after his statements. We have no grounds to do it now. As for the meetings, I don't know who organised them and who selected participants. Let's see what will happen,” he said.

The European Parliament's Rapporteur on Belarus, Justas Paleckis, started his visit to Belarus on March 18.

The Lithuanian office of the MEP reports that he is expected to hold a range of meetings with representatives of the authorities and the opposition. On March 18, he met with Syarhei Kalyakin, the leader of the Fair World party, and Vital Rymasheuski, one of the leaders of the organising committee to form the Belarusian Christian Democracy party. The visit will last until March 21.