Opposition Delegation Heads for OSCE PA Session :: Charter'97 :: News

The session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, due to take place in Berlin on July 6-10, will be visited by two Belarusian delegations – one representing the “national assembly” and one from the Consultative Council of the opposition political parties. The Belarusian political parties at the OSCE PA session will be represented by the chairman of the United Civil Party Anatoly Lebedko, deputy chair of BSDP (NG) Vladimir Nistuk and chairman of the Belarusian women’s party “Nadzeya” Valentina Polevikova.

Anatoly Lebedko said the following of the delegation’s goals to the Radio Ratsya:

“One of our tasks is to continue the policy of de-legitimization of the “national assembly” as an illegitimate structure… Secondly, we got to fulfill the same volume of work as in Strasbourg. We have to deliver to the deputies our concerns over the crackdown on the freedom of speech in Belarus, criminal persecution of “Pagonya” journalists and institution of a series of lawsuits – both against opposition and free media.

The third direction is the missing people, victims of political repressions. We will be delivering to the knowledge of the European parliamentarians the information on what happened to them. We plan to hold right near the Bundestag an action “Chain of those who care”, dedicated to the second year since the disappearance of Dmitry Zavadsky and show trial over the “Pagonya” journalists. We will apparently communicate to the new OSCE PA leadership on the necessity to run a special conference on Belarus.”