National Assembly condemns “anti-Belarusian campaign” :: Charter'97 :: News

The Belarusian National Assembly passed a statement on April 29 to condemn what it called the anti-Belarusian campaign allegedly conducted by European countries and the United States.

Following last October’s referendum and parliamentary elections, Belarus has come under “extremely strong political, diplomatic and information pressure from some countries that are trying to use a number of international organizations for that purpose,” Vadim Popov, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on International Affairs and Relations with the CIS, said while introducing the statement to members of the House.

He added that pressure intensified after the US Congress had passed the Belarus Democracy Act last fall.

Under the influence of that document, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament adopted resolutions containing a biased and presumptuous assessment of the situation in Belarus, he stressed.

Mr. Popov added that the United Nations (UN) also resorted to that “vicious” practice.
He recalled the recent statements by the UN Commission for Human Rights, EU foreign ministers, the Georgian and Lithuanian parliaments and “impertinent” remarks by the Ukrainian and Latvian presidents.

Mr. Popov accused the United States of declaring a cold war on Belarus.
He said that America makes accusations against Belarus to prepare for interference in its internal affairs.

“The use of human rights theme for advancing political and economic interests of one group of states at the expense of another has no prospects and conflicts with the notion of human rights,” the Assembly’s statement says.

The Assembly reaffirms Belarus readiness to conduct an open constructive dialogue and cooperate with international organizations and foreign parliaments “without preconditions and the application of double standards.”