Council of Europe to Talk with Belarusian Authorities Only after Release of Political Prisoners :: Charter'97 :: News

On April 17 in the evening hearings on situation in Belarus in the format of a sub-committee on Belarusian affairs in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe took place in Strasbourg. The head of the Parliamentary Assembly Rene van der Linden, a special Rapporteur on Belarus Andrea Rigoni and other deputies have taken part in the discussion. Members of the subcommittee have come to a conclusion that the best signal for a start of a dialogue would be concrete steps of the Belarusian regime. At least, Rene van der Linden has named this first step as the most desired for the European community.

A document has been adopted at the session which in detail studies electoral code of Belarus, Radio Svaboda informs.

On the same day at a press-conference Andrea Rigoni, a Rapporteur on Belarus, stated that the Council of Europe should encourage steps forward toward democracy to take place. “We shouldn’t step back. We should achieve little compromises to move forward,” Mr. Rigoni said.

Rene van der Linden, a president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, stated in an interview to Radio Svaboda that the first thing that should happen is advance from the Belarusian side. After his visit there was an obvious signal from the Council of Europe, that ways of mutual understanding are being looked for, so that Belarus would approach the standards of the Council of Europe. “Belarus should demonstrate doing that, now it’s Turn of Belarus,” Rene van der Linden said.

The chairman of the PACE has also made a stand in support of the Belarusian organization Young Front. “Detention and criminal prosecution of five activists of the Young Front is absolutely intolerable,” Rene van der Linden said.

As we have informed, a criminal action has been initiated against 5 young activists: Barys Haretski, Dzmitry Fedaruk, Aleh Korban, Anastasiya Palazhanka and Alyaksei Yanusheuski. They are charged with activities on behalf of an unregistered organization (Article 193-1 of the Criminal Code). Young people are facing an imprisonment for up to two years.

“I sincerely hope that the Belarusian government would stop sending to prisons those who simply express their opinion and take part in demonstrations. It would become a good signal of readiness for cooperation,” the head of the PACE said.

Another sign of an effort “to move closer to European structures and becoming a member of the Council of Europe”, Rene van der Linden said, could become an agreement of official Minks to invite international experts to solve the issue of political prisoners in Belarus.

Answering the question that Belarus was deprived the status of a special guest in the Council of Europe 10 years ago, but it hasn’t assisted democratisation in Belarus, Rene van der Linden said: “Belarus is not moving in the direction of Europe still. But I have an impression that more and more people in Belarus want to make steps in this direction, and it could help further cooperation between the Council of Europe and Belarus”.

The PACE Political Affairs Committee’s Rapporteur on Belarus Mr Andres Herkel has stated that the dialogue should take place between democratically-oriented sides. “It wouldn’t become a good beginning for this dialogue to start in a different way,” he said.

As said by him, the precondition of the dialogue between Belarus and the EU or other international organizations is a dialogue inside the country, between the opposition and the regime. To the question whether he believes that a dialogue is taking place already, Mr. Herkel answered that this dialogue has certain preconditions. Firstly, normal conditions for free mass media which represent different opinions of different political forces are to be created in the country.

Mr. Herkel has also said that the dialogue with any European organizations could be started by Belarus only after release of political prisoners.

The leader of the united democratic forces of Belarus Alyaksandr Milinkevich has also made a statement at the press-conference of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. He said that the PACE is closely following the events in Belarus and that its estimation is objective and rather exact. Milinkevich has underlined importance of the PACE’s giving prominence to educational programs in Belarus, so that people in Belarus knew about European democratic values.