Stanislau Shushkevich met with speaker of Lithuanian Seimas

Chairman of the Lithuanian Seimas Arunas Valinskas accepted Stanislau Shushkevich, the former head of the Supreme Council of Belarus, in Vilnius on August 18.

As news agency REGNUM learnt from the Seimas, the head of the Lithuanian parliament noted during the talks that “Lithuania sees all attempts of the Belarusian authorities to develop a dialogue with the European Union”, but, in his view, the authorities should at first “develop a dialogue with their people and opposition”. “Democratic and stable Belarus is important for us,” Valinskas said.

The head of the Seimas called the areas European countries and Lithuania expect to change in Belarus: freedom of speech, changing electoral legislation, defence of and respect for human rights. Only this policy and concrete actions would allow Belarus not to be isolated and not to remain under Russia’s influence, he said. “Only such actions and real reforms will allow getting closer to West. We can be a bridge to the democratic world for Belarus, but it is the decision of the Belarusian authorities whether they’d like to join Europe,” Valinskas concluded.

Stanislau Shushkevich told more about the meeting with the speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas in an interview to www.charter97.org:

“The meeting was initiated by Arunas Valinskas. He phoned me a long ago, but our meeting was delayed. I was pleasantly surprised today. Many members of the Seimas are on holidays now, but the meeting was also attended by deputy head of the Foreign Affairs Committee Justinas Karosas and representatives of different parties.

We discussed the situation in Belarus, they way of moving Belarus closer to the positions of the Eastern Partnership project. The Lithuanian MPs were surprised to hear that none of the opposition parties in Belarus is against the Eastern Partnership programme. But we’d like Europe not to forget about democratic values and be principal in relations with official Minsk. Statements of Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Javier Solana about new approaches of Europe toward Belarus in case the situation in country is not changed by November have encouraged us.

I noted that the Belarusian Electoral Code needed significant amendments. If it is not happened, the marasmic situation in Belarus will remain and the country will see no changes. Promises of illegitimate president Lukashenka are worth nothing. My position on this issue found full understanding by the speaker and the MPs.

We also discussed a situation with political prisoners in Belarus. The Lithuanian politicians expressed their concern over this issue.

I told about creation of the “MP Club” in Belarus composed of members of the Supreme Council of Belarus. We agreed with Justinas Karosas, who is also a deputy head of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania, on expansion on contacts with the Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada I head. We have a press conference after the meeting att4ended by a great number of Lithuanian journalists,” Stanislau Shushkevich said.