Belarusian “deputies” offended by OSCE’ inviting Sannikov only

“Deputies” do not want to cooperate with the working group of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, as it is headed by “an extremist.”

In this way the chairman of the Standing Committee of the “Council of Republic” on International Affairs and National Security Uladzimir Syanko (Vladimir Senko) commented to BelaPAN the plans of the Belarusian side for participation in another session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna on February 18-20.

Mr Syanko is to head the Belarusian delegation at the session of the PA OSCE, Valyatsina Leanenka (Valentina Leonenko) represents the standing committee on international affairs of the “chamber od representatives” of the “national assembly”.

Christian Holm, the Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Ad Hoc Working Group on Belarus, said that he hopes for a meeting of the Belarusian delegation with the working group. A proposal about that has been already sent by him to the Belarusian side. “I can say that on the part of the group there is always a desire to meet with tee Belarusian delegation,” Mr Holm noted.

In his turn, the head of the Belarusian delegation Uladzimir Syanko stated that such a meeting had not been planned.

“Last time, a year ago, I had an informal meeting with the chair of this working group. I told him that we do not see necessity and point in existence of this group as such, as there is no such a problem. It had been invented by them, and some people want to play upon that,” Syanko said.

As said by him, he also talked about that with the leadership of the OSCE PA. “Then I told the chairman and secretary general, that if you want to work with us, let us work on principals of real mutual respect. It is not just a pride. If you want to communicate with us, we are interested to cooperate with you, including the sphere of human rights. But if you are going to dictate, impose something on us, if you are going to work with us in the style of Holm, there is no sense in doing this,” Syanko said. “And then, a year ago, those leaders of the Parliamentary Assembly made it clear for me that that person was probably to be replaced. But for some reasons he stays in the seat still.”

At the same time, Syanko notes that the problem is not the leader of the working group on Belarus, but its existence. “It would not make great difference for us, be it “A” or “B”. We do not see any sense in existence of this group. And when it is headed by an extremist, there is certainly no point in talking to him, and we are not going to talk,” Syanko said. “He does not show a littlest desire to have a meaningful conversation. What is an extremist? It’s a person who is unable to perceive arguing of the other side a priori. Even if he disagrees, there are many other people who disagree. We are not looking for a person to pat us on the back, but a person to listen to our arguments and consider them. It’s no good just clattering, inviting Andrei Sannikov alone (an ex-candidate for presidency in Belarus, the leader of “European Belarus”), or other, to speak. This is not the way for real cooperation and solving some problems.”

Syanko stressed that the position of Minsk is that Belarus is interested in cooperation with the OSCE in any sphere, including the sphere of democratization and human rights.

In the comment to tut.by Mr Holm said that he could hardly be called an extremist by anyone in the world. “But I am definitely an adherent of the democratic values and human rights.”

“The aim of the OSCE working group is to conduct a dialogue with the delegation of Belarus. And naturally I am ready to listen to different points of view. We want to contact with the official delegation, but we communicate with the civil society and the Belarusian opposition as well. We want to develop relations with Belarus, and a free and fair election to be held there,” Mr Holm said.

He brushed off these allegations that the working group dictates or imposes something on Belarus. “I do not have an objective to lecture someone. We are the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. And my objective is to underline the importance of the parliamentarians to be elected in a democratic way. If someone is much aggrieved over that, it’s needless”.

Speaking about the meetings planned in the framework of the winter session, Uladzimir Syanko said that meetings of the Belarusian delegation with their colleagues from Russia, Kazakhstan, Germany, France, the Great Britain and others.

Besides, speeches of the Belarusian MPs are scheduled in the framework of meetings of the session. “We are going to speak at the first committee on security policy. At the second committee there will be a speech of MP Leanenka on gender problems,” Syanko said. He also does not exclude that the Belarusian delegation is going to speak at the session dedicated to the situation in Ukraine.

A Swedish deputy of the OSCE PA Christian Holm became the Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Ad Hoc Working Group on Belarus in 2013. Before that this position had been occupied by a German MP Uta Zapf for 11 years. Holm is known for his sharp criticism of the official Minsk and is one of the most active Swedish deputies engaged in the Belarusian agenda.