PA OSCE Delegation Head Refuses to Meet Belarusian Youth Organization Representatives :: Charter'97 :: News

In the connection with the visit to Belarus of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE special working group on Belarus ZUBR movement addressed the AMG OSCE mission to Belarus with the request to organize a meeting with the head of the delegation Mrs. Uta Zapf. The representatives of the resistance movement intended to tell about repressions towards ZUBR activists and the Belarusian youth as a whole. The ZUBR human rights service has recorded more than 600 cases of repression towards the representatives of the ZUBR. Throughout 2001 ZUBR activists were detained, fined, beaten, expelled from universities, dismissed from job, intimidated and recruited by KGB.

The day before Mrs. Zapf’s arrival the AMG OSCE officers in Belarus informed that this meeting is impossible because of the tight visits’ agenda, in spite of the fact that the ZUBR’s request was sent as soon as the information about the visit appeared.

The ZUBR movement expresses indignation by the fact that Mrs. Zapf has enough time to meet deputies of the illegitimate “chamber of representatives” and some “republican coordinative council”, and do not have time for those who underwent repressions and know the methods of the dictator’s regime not by hearsay.

ZUBR movement declares that the refusal to meet with the persecuted activists of the movement would not make it possible to form an unprejudiced opinion on the real situation in Belarus. The ZUBR also expresses concern that the regime can use this refusal to increase pressure on the young.