Great Britain to render support to the Belarusian democracy :: Charter'97 :: News

16 May the three-day visit of the former candidate President of Belarus Alyaksandr Milinkevich finished. He came to this country on the invitation of the Foreign Office of Great Britain. Among twenty or so talks in London the most important one, according to Alyaksandr Milinkevich, was the talk with the Jeff Hoon, Britain`s Minister for Europe. Mr. Hoon is considered to be among the figures close to the presumed new Prime Minister of Great Britain Gordon Brown.

“We talked about the standpoint of the European Union, Alyaksandr Milinkevich tells the Radio Svaboda. The discussion of the possibility of unconditional cooperation with the Belarusian authorities has been underway there. I think, it’s a mistake. This viewpoint is shared in Great Britain. They assume that the policy regarding the dictatorship should be moral. For this reason certain conditions have to be met. And these conditions were formulated long ago.

We also discussed the relationship with Russia In Great Britain they are losing hope that Russia will soon become democratic. Deterioration of the situation is obvious for them, though certainly it is necessary for the democratic forces of Belarus to build up relations with Russia, but currently democratization of Belarus through Russia is an illusionary project”.

Alyaksandr Milinkevich hopes that his visit to Great Britain will give concreter results, particularly, for the repressed students, for those who were fired for political reasons.

“The top policymakers at whose level such issues are settled said that they would very seriously consider the possibility of providing grants for the repressed students, of rendering support to the jobless for political reasons .I am sure, they will keep their promise because Great Britain is the country where policymakers treat their promise very seriously”.