European Belarus - civil campaign

Europe won’t lift sanctions against Belarusian regime

11:04 2.10.2008

The European Parliament will soon consider a draft resolution on relations with Belarus. In view of non-democratic character of the “parliamentary elections” in Belarus, the draft resolution doesn’t say about lifting the sanctions against the Belarusian regime.

Janusz Onyszkiewicz, member of the European Parliament, former minister of defence of Poland and one of the Solidarity movement leaders, told in an interview to Polskie Radio.

“The draft resolution contains a suggestion not to lift sanctions against the Belarusian and not to regard the “elections” as an insignificant event. We don’t want to conduct “nothing happened” policy and continue our relations with Belarus. We shouldn’t turn a blind eye to what Lukashenka is doing. If we shut eyes to how the “parliamentary elections “were held, it would be a bad step of Europe. The draft will be heard on October 8,” Janusz Onyszkiewicz said.

The “parliamentary elections” in Belarus were held on September 28. 264 candidates contested 110 seats in the”parliament”. About 100 opposition candidates failed to get to the “house of representatives”.

The OSCE/ODIHR election observing mission didn’t recognise the “parliamentary elections” in Belarus free and democratic. OSCE observers noted “bad or very bad” process of vote count in 50 per cent of the cases. 40 per cent of the observers weren’t able to monitor the vote counting in full. The elections ultimately fell short of OSCE standards.

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