No Legitimization of “Parliament” At PACE Session :: Charter'97 :: News

“There will be no legitimization of “national assembly” of Belarus at the winter PACE session,” – said in a January 27 interview to BelaPAN the leader of the United Civil Party (UCP) Anatoly Lebedko, who visited PACE session, which opened today in Strasbourg. According to the politician, this finally became clear after the meeting of the sub-commission for Belarus of the PACE Political Committee.

The event attracted representatives of the Belarusian opposition – Anatoly Lebedko, his deputy Yaroslav Romanchuk and chairwoman of the unregistered United Civil-Democratic Party Valentina Polevikova, as well as the deputies of the “house of representatives”, who never attended the meeting, for they will arrive in Strasbourg not until January 28.

Opposition representatives passed over to the sub-commission’s members an appeal of the leaders of five Belarusian parties – UCP, UCDP, Party of communists, BSDP (NG) and the Belarusian labor party on the situation around the OSCE ground mission. “We consider the resumption of OSCE mission’s activities in the new format to be yet another concession to the Belarusian regime,” – underscored Lebedko.

He also pinpointed that on January 30 within the PACE session’s framework there will take place the meeting of the special PACE commission for investigating into the circumstances of politically-motivated disappearances in Belarus. The group is headed by prominent Russian human rights advocate Sergei Kovalev.