Pamfilova Won’t Meet With Lukashenka :: Charter'97 :: News

Another session of the Russian -Belarusian Human Rights Commission by Russian presidential council has taken place in Moscow. Russian and Belarusian human rights activists recommended the head of the commission Ella Pamfilova to decline invitation to the meeting with Alyaksandr Lukashenka, and decided to hold the next session in Belarus.

Russian-Belarusian public human rights commission has decided to monitor the conditions of imprisoned Russians in Belarus. The Belarusian Helsinki Commission is to find out their quantity. Besides, the situation with the imprisoned Belarusians in the prisons of Russia is to be studied. In the framework of this project it is planned that the head of the Commission Ella Pamfilova should visit Minsk. At the same time the commission is going to hold another meeting in Belarus. At the last session the Russian-Belarusian Commission decided that the meeting of Ella Pamfilova with Alyaksandr Lukashenka is inexpedient.

“This proposal has been received from the government, and Ambassador of Belarus told that Lukashenka wants to meet with her as well. But this invitation is done in a special Belarusian way. First the newspaper “Sovetskaya Belorussia” publishes an article, in which the language used referring to Ella Pamfilova, that could not have been used when writing about a woman, especially the one holding a high state position, even in the Soviet time. We have decided that it is intended to be some PR action, but nobody knows for whom and with what goals,” the members of the commission Tatsyana Protska explained to Radio Svaboda.

Among the current topics discussed at the session of the Commission in Moscow, were the presidential elections in Belarus. The Commission is to make a special statement concerning the electoral legislation in Belarus.

“We have come to a conclusion that the Electoral Code and election routine do not correspond even to the standards in Russia, and so much the more international standards. Integration processes that would have conclusion in a referendum or some elections would not have legitimization. They would not be recognized either by the world community, or by the citizens of the country,” Tatsyana Protska said.

The members of the Russian-Belarusian public commission on human rights have decided to address Prosecutor general of Russia, who could contribute to investigation of the Russian trace in the cases of politically motivated abductions in Belarus.