Heorhy Dmitruk: EU should not turn into accomplice

Participating in trade in political prisoners and the demand to lift sanctions is an immoral stance.

Heorhy Dmitruk, a co-head of the organising committee to found the Belarusian Christian Democracy party, talked to charter97.org about Aliaksandr Milinkevich's call on the EU to lift sanctions.

“Participating in trade in political prisoners and lifting targeted visa sanctions from a criminal group that blatantly violates the country's Constitution will be demonstration of an immoral stance of the European Union. I can say the same about authoritarian 'modernisation' of the country's economy without participation of civil society. Complicity in and moral support of the criminal privatisation of state-owned property is an unprincipled position,” Heorhy Dmitruk says.

The politician thinks the organisers of the conference, where the scandalous statements on Brussels-Minsk cooperation were made, will not give up their own values and principles.

“The European People's Party, which organised the conference, will be able, in my view, to take morally and politically grounded decisions in spite of plain spoken requests of 'advocates of the regime'. The question 'to be or not to be' has an unexpected financial tone, in my opinion: money to support the regime or Christian values,” Heorhy Dmitruk said.

The conference titled “The Dialogue on Modernisation with Belarusian Society” was held in Brussels yesterday. Aliaksandr Milinkevich, the leader of the Movement For Freedom, supported the dialogue between the EU and the regime, because, as he thinks, it “will distract Belarus from Russia”. The politician said the liberalisation of 2009-2010 was successful and that “the Russian secret services were involved” in the provocations during the post-election protests on December 19, 2010. Milinkevich called on the EU to lift sanctions.