On November 19 and 20 the situation with human rights in Belarus was discussed in Tallinn and Helsinki.

A Belarusian human rights activist, an expert of the Belarusian agency of Humanitarian technologies Dzyanis Gil made a report. The topic of the meeting was presentation of the report on freedom of worship problems in Belarus. Representatives of Finnish and the Baltic States’ public associations, who were present at the meetings, could have firsthand experience about the latest statements of Alyaksandr Lukashenka about possibility of liberalization and European vector of the domestic policy of the country are nothing more than a political game.

The Belarusian expert has emphasized that there is a danger today that the European Union could turn a blind eye to human rights violations in Belarus for the sake of economic advantages. “We have to state with regret that Lukashenka’s statements about possible thaw of the regime are contrary to the fact. In recent years the situation with freedom of worship hasn’t improved, and even new obstacles for free activities of registered churches and church unions emerged,” he said at the meeting in Tallinn.

During the discussion in Tallinn a representative of the strategic initiatives centre “Other Europe” (Latvia) Paval Levushkan noted that dwellers of the Baltic States understand problems of Belarus very well, as not long ago religious denominations in our countries faced persecution under the Soviet regime. The situation in Belarus is far from the situation of persecution in Soviet times, but there are parallels. He told that “The Other Europe” is carrying out a constant monitoring of the situation and invited public associations of Estonia to exert pressure on Lukashenka’s regime, so that the well-known tactics of the Belarusian leader “Preferences for kisses” won’t be used. “Only real actions and not declarations should be taken into account by the leadership of the EU. As voters, we should influence the politicians of our countries,” the Latvian guest said.

An analogous meeting with members of public associations and journalists was held in Helsinki in IRR-TV office. Dzyanis Gil took part in shooting of the programs for Finnish Channel Seven, some Finnish radio stations, printed mass media.

An expert of portal Liberty of Faith Denis Sargin attracted attention of the audience to the fact that Europe hasn’t heard intelligible answers about fate of the disappeared oppositionists from Lukashenka’s regime. “The people have disappeared and were possibly murdered. What are the results of the investigation? We haven’t found answers to these questions yet. How a dialogue of the European Union and the state is possible, when people are abducted for views from differing from the official ones? We heard about such things in Eastern countries with totalitarian or terrorist regimes. If Belarus is set to carry out a dialogue with the EU, its leadership must adopt norms of civilized political discussion. And in case they are involved in oppositionists’ abductions in slightest way, they should resign. Countries living basing upon European Christian values must carry out the policy of zero tolerance to regimes which accept internal terrorism against the opposition”.

We remind that vice speaker of the 13th Supreme Soviet of Belarus, the chairman of the Election Commission Viktar Hanchar and his friend, businessman and public leader Anatol Krasouski, a former Interior Ministry head Yury Zakharanka who joined the opposition, as well as a camera operator of the Russian ORT TV channel Zmitser Zavadski went missing in 1999-2000 in Belarus.

The world community constantly states the necessity to shed light on the fate of Belarusian oppositionists. The demands to establish the truth about their disappearances is contained in the resolutions of the UN Commission on Human Rights, of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the OSCE.

A number of high-ranking officials in Belarus, in particular minister of internal affaires Uladzimir Navumau, head of the president’s administration Viktar Sheiman, former minister of internal affaires Yury Sivakou, and former commander of special task squad Dzmitry Paulichenka are banned from entry into the EU countries and the US, because they are suspected of involvement in kidnapping of the oppositionists.

prochurch.info

Translation: charter97.org