Some vague promises

After his visit to Belarus, Justas Paleckis from the European Parliament has submitted a report of very predictable contents.

Even if the text of the report of the European Parliament’s Special Rapporteur on human rights in Belarus had not been written before the visit, its tone had been set long ago.

Justas Paleckis is a smart political veteran. He began his political and diplomatic career in the Soviet Union. He was a student of the Higher Diplomatic School of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union (presently the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), then an employee at USSR embassies to Switzerland and the GDR and at the Soviet Ministry’s central institutions. He was the secretary of Lithuania’s Communist Party. The politician continued his career even in the independent Lithuania: as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, councilor on foreign affairs for the President, Lithuania’s ambassador to the U.K., Portugal, Ireland, deputy minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Lithuania.

Since 2004 Justas Paleckis has been a deputy of the European Parliament. He is also vice chairperson of the EP’s delegation on relations with Belarus. As a matter of fact, this period of his life is most interesting to us.

Justas Paleckis has always been a cautious but devoted upholder of the EU’s “dialog” with Lukashenka, as far as Belarus is concerned. He has never been spotted lobbying directly the regime’s interests, but some of his recent statements cast a shadow on the detachment of his report.

For example, it was Justas Paleckis who initiated the discussion about the removal of visa sanctions against Uladzimir Makiei. Moreover, right before the summit of the Council of Europe held on February 7 he said that Makiei would get the entrance visa. These words were immediately refuted by the deputy spokesperson of the superior of the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Maja Kocijančič who said that this issue is not on their agenda. Justas Paleckis couldn’t possibly not know that the question of Makiei’s status would not be discussed during the summit, and it is hard to believe that a person with such enormous diplomatic experience would say something that careless or stupid. It should be a thoroughly planned provocation: the deputy of the European Parliament managed to keep his hands clean, since he never actually raised this issue, but at the same time he deliberately started a public discussion with the only purpose – to gradually accustom the EU’s leadership and society to Makiei’s unavoidable visit.

Officially Justas Paleckis arrived to Belarus in order to write a report. It was his own initiative formulated within the Rules of Procedure the European Parliament. Paleckis assures that the reason behind his initiative is the desire to further develop relations between the EU and Belarus.

”I have counted dozens of resolutions on Belarus that have been adopted during the recent years. But they are merely the EU’s reaction to the various negative events, undemocratic elections, violations of freedoms and human rights. But in fact, there is no document on the future strategy for the relations between Brussels and Minsk… That is why I submitted to the committee on foreign affairs of the European Parliament a proposal to write a document about the current situation that would include a range of suggestions for the European Commission and the Council of Europe on how we can promote the relations between the EU and Belarus,” the deputy of the European Parliament told Deutsche Welle.

It is rather obvious, however, that Paleckis had made his key conclusions long before he arrived to Belarus. Thus, in the same interview the rapporteur repeats nearly all propaganda clichés so popular with the official Minsk and its unofficial lobbyists, with just a few rhetoric adjustments:

“The policy of sanction is not the most effective.”

“We should admit that many deputies know too little about the situation in Belarus. They get most of their information from the exclusively negative resolutions. This negativity is well-motivated because there are many facts of human rights violations. But the country lives, its economy develops.”

“We should communicate with the opposition, the civil society and the powers of Belarus.”

”We can say, with cautious optimism, that the relations between Minsk and Brussels have definitely received a boost.”

Maybe Paleckis knows something new, something that hasn’t yet reached the families of Mikalai Statkievich, Dzmitry Dashkievich, Ales Bialiatski, Mikalai Dziadok, Mikalai Autukhovich and other political prisoners, crippled and humiliated in jails? Even if he knows something, he won’t tell because there is nothing encouraging to say.

So when asked by Radio Racja what steps the Belarusian powers take today to release the political prisoners, Paleckis replied:

“During our conversations I heard some promises. They were obviously vague, for the reasons that we all know…” Enough said. It is not about something insignificant – it is about a principal issue, the release of political prisoners, and without this issue the European Union refuses to negotiate on any terms with the Belarusian powers. And the “vague promises” is not just a figure of speech; it is the actual degree of the Belarusian powers’ readiness to a dialog about the principal issues.

Had Justas Paleckis been an unbiased reporter, he could just call it a day right there and go back to Brussels. And he would have the title of the report ready: Some Vague Promises.

By the way, Paleckis has no plans to meet with the families of the political prisoners in Belarus. The agenda of his four-day visit to Belarus (March 18-21) was too tough. Nor do we have any information whether he had addressed the Belarusian powers with a request to meet with the political prisoners. Well, it is not surprising. Those who want to meet with the political prisoners, like for example Justas Paleckis’ colleague from the delegation on the relations with Belarus Marek Migalski, never get the visa from the Belarusian powers.

Meanwhile, Paleckis found time to meet with politicians Aliaksandar Milinkievich and Aliaksiei Yanukievich, political scientists Aliaksandar Klaskouski and Dzianis Mieliansou, who, to put it mildly, do not advocate for a particularly rough approach to the dictator.

In other words, the meeting schedule of the rapporteur seems to have been written to help him hear what he wants to hear.

Suspicions grow even stronger when one reads the joyful comment of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry on the report that had not even been written yet.

Another interesting fact: Justas Paleckis is mentioned in the document uploaded by Mikalai Khalezin several months ago, the report of the British company Chime Communications on the job performed by its director Lord Bell to improve Lukashenka’s international image.

In the report, there is a paragraph called Direct Lobbying on the work with specific persons and politicians from the European Union, including deputies of the European Parliament from Poland (Józef Pinior), Lithuania (Justas Paleckis), the U.K. (Charles Tennok), Ireland (Marian Harkin) and Holland (Jan Marinus Wiersma). The purpose of these contacts was to show that Belarus treats everything said in the European Parliament about the Belarusian elections with great attention. Moreover, these contacts were supposed to help get a clear understanding of the position of some specific members of the European Parliament who openly criticize Belarus.

So there seems to be no chance to get an objective report from Paleckis. The visit of this deputy merely shows weakness of the methods used by those who want to see progress where there is none; these methods include misinterpreting facts, speaking with euphemisms, unfair choice of interlocutors. The truth is, though, that Lukashenka’s regime is not ready for any serious conversation, and any modernization is fatal to him. Anyone stating the opposite is simply using rhetoric tools like “some promises that were rather vague”.

Aliaksandar Atroshchankau for charter97.org