Belarusian, Czech political stances differ much, head of Czech diplomatic mission says :: Charter'97 :: News

The Czech Republic maintains diplomatic relations with Belarus, but has a much different political stance, Vladimir Ruml, charge d’affaires of the Czech Republic to Belarus, said in an interview with BelaPAN last week.

He said that the Czechs, like the Belarusians, are a peaceful 10-million nation, which also was occupied by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. However, he stressed, "the Czech Republic is currently a democratic country, while Belarus is far from being democratic.”

“Democracy implies free discussion and I personally do not like some states trying to interfere with freedom of information,” he said, adding that the Czech Republic seeks to support everything in Belarus that is recognized as democratic worldwide.

According to him, the Czech stance on Belarus was similar to that of European Union member states before the country joined the Union. But now, he noted, as a EU member, the Czech Republic has a stronger say in the EU`s policy regarding Belarus.

“It’s absolutely normal that we, the chiefs of the EU countries` missions in Minsk, often have meetings to discuss the political situation in your country and the Belarusian authorities’ measures against independent and opposition demonstrations against the official results of the elections and referendum. We hoped that the elections would be transparent and fair. But as early as October 17 [polling day], we realized that they were not fair,” Mr. Ruml said.

According to him, Czech President Vaclav Klaus and the Czech foreign ministry are very concerned about reports that the conditions in which the October 12-17 national referendum and parliamentary elections were held.

He said that the Czech president had sent a letter to Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko not long before, in which he stressed that in the present-day Europe, there is no place for violations of human rights, persecution of political opponents and violent suppression of public protest, which all is leading Belarus to international isolation.

“I personally hope that the Belarusians will hold real elections in the future and will live well and safely with us in free Europe,” he added.