German mass media: Palyakova’s suicide is occasion to give thought to EU policy towards Belarus

• 12.03.2009, 13:15

German mass media connects the suicide of the human rights activist with the dialogue of the EU and official Minsk.

Last week in his flat in the city of Salihorsk 33-year-old Yana Palyakova hanged herself, “Tageszeitung” writes in an article “Suicide instead of prison”. Lawyer Palyakova cooperated with different human rights defence organisations, in particular, with the Belarusian Helsinki Committee and “Our House” association.

Last autumn after another detention by law-enforcing agencies Palyakova addressed the local prosecutor’s office with a complaint against brutal actions of policemen. But instead of investigating the case, the prosecutor’s office opened a case against Palyakova. As a result, in March she was convicted for “deliberate false accusation”.

These events, the author of the article Barbara Oertel believes, is an occasion to ponder the issues of the EU policy towards Belarus once again. Last October Brussels suspended sanctions against high-ranking Belarusian politicians. One of the conditions of this move was release of political prisoners. But there is far from liberalisation of the regime in Belarus, as the Eastern European Centre on Democracy in Warsaw states.

“The incident with Palyakova shows that the pressure of the regime on oppositionists does not stop,” says Volha Karach (“Nash Dom” – Our House). “The suicide of Yana was the last act of her resistance. The regime failed to break her”.