“Voice of America” about Senator McCain and Belarusian issue
- 4.05.2012, 16:59
The former candidate for presidency in the US believes that the sanctions against the Belarusian regime should not be diminished.
US Senator John McCain believes that political prisoners Andrei Sannikov and Zmitser Bandarenka were released by Belarusian authorities only because Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s regime was scared that the West might stiffen the sanctions. Such a statement was made by the former candidate for presidency in the US during his speech at the international Parliamentary Forum for Democracy conference – “The Role of Parliamentarians in Strengthening Eastern European Democracies: On the Road to Democratic Societies” held on 3 May 2012 in Vilnius, Voice of America informs.
“In Belarus, the long struggle for democracy in Europe’s last dictatorship goes on, and the United States remains committed to standing up and speaking up for the people of Belarus until they win their freedom,” McCain’s words are quoted by charter97.org. “. “Lukashenko is under more pressure than ever, especially following the latest E.U. sanctions. We see the effects of this growing pressure in the recent release of Andrei Sannikov and Dmitry Bondarenko after two years of political imprisonment… Now is not the time to reduce the pressure on Lukashenko. It is time to increase it. The best way to maximize this unified external pressure is with unified internal pressure, especially from a united political opposition in Belarus.”
The conference was held in the building of Lithuanian Seimas. It was dedicated to discussion on the prospects of democratization, political events in the region, as well as challenges and vision of the international integration and cooperation.
MPs of the former Soviet Republics have taken part in the discussion, as well as representatives of opposition from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus. The latter was represented by: coordinators of European Belarus civil campaign Alyaksandr Atroshchankau and Pavel Marynich, the editor-in-chief of charter97.org website Natallya Radzina, leaders of the United Civil Party Anatol Lyabedzka and of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Party Vital Rymasheuski.
The first leader of independent Belarus Stanislau Shushkevich was invited to the conference as well.
As Natallya Radzina noted in her comment to the Voice of America, her main impression after participation in the conference was the fact that everyone discussed the situation in Belarus: “The Belarusian issue was among the key ones. Much was said about total ignoring of human rights, and that political prisoners remain in jail still.”
As said by the editor-in-chief of charter97.org, almost all participants of the debate supported the idea of John McCain that sanctions against the Belarusian regime should be stiffened, so that the rest of the political prisoners were released by him.
“In general, John McCain has made an impression of a strong politician with a consistent stand, a person who is really concerned about the today’s situation in Belarus. He understands perfectly well that a dictatorship has been existing in the centre of Europe for 20 years already, and it is time to call it a day on that,” Radzina concluded.