MEPs call for EU to fund Belarus opposition :: Charter'97 :: News

A group of Polish and Lithuanian MEPs is pushing for a tougher EU line on Minsk, with proposals to deepen the diplomatic isolation of president Alexander Lukashenko`s regime and for the EU to support pro-democracy movements in the country. Six centre-right MEPs along with several Belarusian, Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian politicians issued the call during an EPP-ED group-sponsored conference in Bialowieza, eastern Poland, on May, 29.

The so-called Bialowieza Declaration urges the European Commission to sponsor independent radio and TV stations on the EU-Belarusian border, to set up a European Democratic Fund to finance opposition groups inside the country and to establish a second Solidarity Fund "to help create the future democratic elites of Belarus" via academic exchange programmes.

The statement also calls on Brussels to monitor Belarusian human rights abuses and to extend its travel ban to any Minsk officials active in suppressing civil liberties in the future, while stressing that "the Belarusian dictator exercises his presidential function illegitimately and the power he now wields was obtained by force, and continues to be maintained by force".

Member states issued a common position banning two Belarusian officials from entering the EU following an October 2004 referendum to extend president Lukashenko`s mandate, while western European diplomats called the vote a sham.

The move came on top of an earlier visa ban on four Belarusian politicians in response to the disappearance of four opposition activists in 1999 and 2000.