Belarus opposition seeks EU help to restart round-table talks with Lukashenka


[vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/fawin07L7YI”][vc_column_text]On October 30, five Belarusian opposition leaders appealed for EU help to restart internal talks on democratic reform with the participation of president Lukashenka. In 1999, a similar plan failed. Will Europe be of help now?

In an open letter to the heads of the EU institutions, Syarhei Kalyakin, Anatol Lyabedzka, Uladzimir Nyaklyayeu, Pavel Sevyarynets, Mikalai Statkevich said the bloc should use its leverage on president Alyaksandr Lukashenka to restart round-table talks, mothballed in 1999, Belgian e-zine EUobserver reports.

It is crucial the ‘negotiation process’ include mediators from the OSCE and from EU bodies, the leaders say.

They also urged the EU to push for changes in Belarus parliamentary elections next year, for instance, by getting Lukashenka to let opposition delegates sit on electoral commissions and by securing an ‘open and transparent’ vote count, Andrew Rettman, the author of the article, stresses.

The five signers addressed other opposition activists – 2006 presidential candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich and 2015 presidential candidate Tatsiana Karatkevich – but the both refused to sign the letter.

Milinkevich said he quit politics.

As far as Karatkevich is concerned, she is reportedly to have a different programme.

In a recent interview she told Euobserver that her model of ‘constructive opposition’ aims to improve ordinary people’s lives, for instance, by electoral and police reform, instead of pushing for democratic transition.

EUobserver quotes the words of an anonymous Belarusian who do not believe in democratic changes under Lukashenka’s rule: “The EU cannot knock on his door, hand him a gun and say: ‘Here, Mr. President, please be so kind as to shoot yourself in the name of democracy’. Free elections will take place in Belarus only after Lukashenka”.

The EU has not responded to the letter yet. However, Lituanian MEP Petras Austrevicius, who works closely with Belarus dissidents, endorsed the round-table idea.

belsat.eu, via EUobserver[vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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