The members of the Presidium of the Coordination Council have called on all Belarusians to say their resolute “no” to lawlessness and lies:
“Dear citizens of Belarus,
This morning Alyaksandr Lukashenka appointed himself President of the Republic of Belarus. He did it in an atmosphere of the strictest secrecy, under the protection of riot police. In a narrow circle of all their voters. he took the oath of office on the Constitution, which he himself wrote.
And which he himself once again disregarded. Once again he demonstrated his inadequacy.
The Belarusians did not vote for him in the elections. And this farce can hardly be called an election.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka has once again shown that he does not care about the opinion of the people.
But there is some positive news as well. From today, Alyaksandr Lukashenka is an ordinary citizen of the Republic of Belarus. He has stripped himself of all vestiges of legitimacy.
There is a strong demand for dialogue in society. But they talk to us with the riot police batons and from the helicopter cockpit with a submachine gun in their hands.
We support an indefinite peaceful action of civil disobedience, ignoring any orders of the illegal government, peaceful actions on the streets of cities. We deserve a better future. Together we will build Belarus, which we will be proud of.
We support all citizens of Belarus who do not agree with the inauguration of Lukashenka, who will go to peaceful protests and declare strikes. We support government officials who do not recognize election results. We support the decision of the Belarusians to use all legal means of protest throughout the country.
We demand from all investigators who have received allegations of crimes committed against ordinary citizens to initiate criminal proceedings against the suspects and immediately begin an investigation. In case of opposition from the higher leaders of the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor’s Office, we urge you to file resignation reports.
We support all athletes who declare their refusal to participate in sports events.
We support all cultural figures who have decided not to take part in public events.
We call on all honest journalists from state-owned media to declare, on live broadcasts and otherwise, their opposition to the illegal inauguration.
We call on all Belarusians to say their resolute NO to lawlessness and lies.
We are ready to immediately begin negotiations with the Prime Minister of Belarus and the chairmen of the commissions of the House of Representatives on the appointment of a date for new elections and the temporary administration of the country for a transitional period.
We call on the European Union, Great Britain, USA, Canada, China, Russia to take an unequivocal position on recognizing Lukashenka’s illegitimacy and to consider withdrawing their ambassadors from consultations.
We propose to create an international group of mediators from high representatives of Austria, Great Britain, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, USA and France with the support of the OSCE.
We ask for a decision at the next meeting of the EU Council to impose sanctions on Lukashenka, as well as on those involved in electoral fraud, violence and financing of the regime.
Now the moment has come when everyone must answer the most important question.
Who do you love
I love Belarus.
That’s mutual!”
