Andrei Sannikov: "Europe delude oneself about empty statements of regime" :: Charter'97 :: News

On March 29-30 Lennart Meri’s First Memorial conference “Remember about Future Europe” was held in Tallinn. The Conference was held under the patronage of Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves. Well-known politicians, public leaders, journalists from Europe and the US have taken part in the conference. Belarus was presented by the leader of the initiative “We Remember” Iryna Krasouskaya, the international coordinator of the Charter’97 Andrei Sannikov, Oxford university post-graduate student Yan Churilovich. Participants of the conference discussed current problems of European integration, energy security, relations with Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus.

A separate section of the conference was dedicated to Belarus. Besides Belarusian participants, an expert from Poland and a chairman of the sub-committee on Belarus of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Andres Herkel have taken part in it. During the conference Andrei Sannikov and Iryna Krasouskaya presented Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves and President of the Republic of Finland Tarja Halonen a film by Yury Khaschavatski “Ploscha” about the events in Minsk in March 2006.

“Belarusian range of problems has come to stay in the international agenda. At the conference we had a chance to talk to many politicians and experts, that is why we could draw some conclusions about the general attitude of Europe to the events in our country. The main issues discussed where a possibility of a dialogue of the opposition and the regime in Belarus, and the demonstration on March 25. It is safe to say that Europe is not going to be deluded by empty statements of the regime about their desire to improve relations with the European states and organizations. One should highly appreciate the fact that the opposition considers a possibility of a dialogue with the authorities, and was the first to make steps in this direction. The ability of the regime to engage into a serious conversation with the opposition would serve as an acid test for hardening or meltdown of relations with the official Belarus. So far inappropriate reaction of the Belarusian authorities to opposition’s proposals, demonstration of brutal force during Freedom Day causes only irritation of European politicians.

On the other hand, attempts to organize a pseudo-dialogue like the one observed by us during the visit to Minsk of the PACE Chairman Rene van der Linden and the head of the PA OSCE Working group Uta Zapf, are not finding serious support in Europe and would not be able to mislead European institutions. Europe firmly states its resoluteness to increase support to the civil society of Belarus to defend freedoms and rights, and is not going to back out from the conditions of the EU as a precondition for improving relations with Europe”.

Andrei Sannikov and Iryna Krasouskaya with Finnish President Tarja Halonen

Andrei Sannikov and Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves