Sannikov and Schwarzenberg spoke of values

The leader of the European Belarus civic campaign met the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czech Republic Karel Schwarzenberg.

The meeting between a presidential candidate 2010 in Belarus, a former political prisoner Andrei Sannikov with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Czech Republic Karel Schwarzenberg took place in Prague on 10 May.

“It was very important to me to meet Schwarzenberg – a close friend and companion-in-arms of Vaclav Havel’s, who, out of all European ministers, perhaps understands the best the period, which Belarus is experiencing now. That is why I spoke to him not only as to a Minister of Foreign Affairs, but also as to a person, for whom moral values prevail. Europe urgently needs to remember about values today, about the morality and solidarity that existed in the 80-ies and that allowed to free Eastern Europe from totalitarianism.

We spoke a lot about political prisoners. An absolutely unacceptable situation has emerged, when the European Union has taken a shot at direct contacts with the representatives of the dictatorial regime while the situation of the political prisoner is worsening every day. European emissaries, who have come to Belarus recently, stated about near releases of the prisoners of conscience, but none have still been released, and alarming information keeps coming from prisons and penal colonies about the increase of pressure on the people.

Moreover, arrests and detentions have become almost a daily event. I have informed the Minister of Foreign Affairs about that, having noted, in particular, the recent cases of arrests of journalists and youth activists”, - Sannikov told the charter97.org web-site.

The politicians discussed possible options for European policy before the Eastern Partnership summit, also touched upon the processes taking place now in Russia and Ukraine.

“Minister Schwarzenberg has assured me that the issue of the release of political prisoners still remains a principled issue for the European Union”, - Sannikov noted.

It turned out in the course of the meeting that both Karel Schwarzenberg and Andrei Sannikov smoke pipes, which was what the politicians did during the conversation. The minister noted that he would like to smoke a pipe with Sannikov in free Belarus.