PACE: “No contacts with Belarusian authorities until political prisoners are freed”
- 13.04.2011, 11:50
The memory of April 12 Minsk metro blast victims was venerated in the beginning of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe session in Strasbourg and in Luxembourg at the session of the Foreign Affairs Council where of foreign ministers of the EU countries gather.
However the Belarusian issue was not limited to that.
At the session of the PACE political committee closed for the press, hearings on the situation in Belarus were held. In the report of PACE Rapporteur on the issue Sinikka Hurskainen (Finland) expressed concern over politically motivated criminal cases, tortures of political prisoners, violations of procedural requirements during investigation and court trials, and death penalties in Belarus. In this connection, the rapporteur said, high-level contacts of the PACE with the Belarusian authorities should remain frozen at this point. At the same time, Mrs Hurskainen noted that the Assembly must continue the dialogue with the democratic forces of Belarus. A human rights activist Ales Byalyatski addressed the audience of the hearings, Radio Svaboda informs.
“We are saying unambiguously, and deputies support us: there will be no contacts with the Belarusian authorities whatsoever before the release of political prisoners.”
There were about 100 participants at the session of the Political committee: very many MEPs, as well as representatives of the EU and the OSCE.
“The agenda primarily concerned the situation with political prisoners and the general social and political situation in the country. Deputies first of all asked what should be done by the Council of Europe in this situation in order to influence the human rights situation in Belarus,” Byalyatski said.
Human rights activists Ales Byalyatski, Alena Tankachova and their Russian colleague Andrei Yurov also met with the Committee created by the PACE after the events of December 19 in Belarus. It consists of deputies from different factions, and is headed by a representative of the Czech Republic Tomas Irsa.
“This seems to be a very important step for us, as the aim of this committee is to carry out investigation of what really happened on December 19. It is a rather important task, as there has not been an international structure earlier which would be tackling this issue in essence. We had a meeting. We expressed our opinions concerning the work of this committee, and they shared their doubts and worries related to the steps they are going to take. Worries concerned efficiency of work, as they suspect that the Belarusian authorities would not really cooperate with this committee,” Byalyatski said.
Has the terrorist attack in Minsk metro influenced the discussion in any way? As said by Byalyatski, deputies are interested how this incident could influence the situation in Belarus:
“Drawing a parallel with 2008, we express concerns that the authorities could use this situation for another growth of escalation. Anti-terror efforts could turn into a fight against the civil society and political opponents. Our concerns were met with full understanding on the part of the deputies,” the human rights activist said.