Ales Bialiatski: West supports Putin by supporting Lukashenka

Sanctions are the only effective tool in critical cases.

Ales Bialiatski, the head of the Viasna human rights centre and former political prisoners, visited Prague on Vaclav Havel memory day on the invitation of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Radio Svaboda reports.

The human rights defender tells if warmer relations with the US can be expected and why the support of Lukashenka by the international community is dangerous.

– The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic distances itself from Vaclav Havel's policy in the human rights area. You met with Vaclav Havel personally. What has changed since then, in your opinion?

– Of course, we see certain alarming signals, for example, remarks by president Zeman. The Czech Republic takes an uncertain stance on the EU's common position on the Russian-Ukrainian war. I think the right principles put in the Czech policy by Vaclav Havel still exist. The Czech government holds a rather clear position on the human rights situation in Belarus.

– You had a meeting at the Czech MFA. Does the Czech Republic remember about Belarus? Did you receive support?

– It was a working meeting at the department dealing with eastern European problems, including Belarus. I mostly spoke about the situation of human rights and events in our country.

The authorities began to prepare for the elections scheduled for next year. It includes repression against particular people and amendments to the law on the mass media. The authorities create a legal basis to put an end to pluralism in the media space. The restrictive amendments will also hit Viasna human rights centre, because our website is on the list of the sites that cannot be opened from state-run institutions. It shows that the authorities released me but at the same time they continue the crackdown.

– The US wants to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba despite prisoners of conscience and political repression in the country. What Belarus can expect?

– Cuba is a unique case. The situation there has not been improving for a long time, though people live in poverty. We don't see resistance there, because the isolation allowed creating a sort of a big concentration camp. As for sanctions in the international policy, I think they are useful. It's like a medicine: it doesn't work if you give an ill state or society too little. But too much medicines can harm. The dose, the form of sanctions that would help stop illegal actions by the state should be chosen carefully in every particular case.

As for relations with Belarus, I don't think we can expect serious changes. The main reasons that caused sanctions haven't disappeared. Logic suggests that sanctions are unlikely to be changed, too. I mean political sanctions, because economic ones were slight and most of them have been lifted by now.

– Can it be so that changes in Obama's policy to the country practicing repression will become an example for the EU that can refuse to use sanctions against Russia?

– Sanctions are the only peaceful tool in international relations in some critical cases. Russia's financial crisis is the result of the sanctions that are used by the EU to fulfill their task of giving a warning to the Russian authorities over the conflict in Ukraine. It's a question whether Russia will hear it or not. The Russian authorities use the situation of the conflict and tense relations with the EU to dispose of NGOs and the mass media in the country. Russia is turning into a classical police state.

– How should Europe behave towards Belarus if European officials have differences over how to behave towards Putin?

– By supporting the Lukashenka regime, the international community supports Putin. I mean economic, political and moral support. It follows from close economic and political ties established by the Belarusian regime with Russia in the last 20 years. We joined such a large number of unions – EEU, EurAsEC – that we mix the abbreviations up. The Belarusian state is gradually losing its independence and joining the Eastern Asian corporation where human rights are not respected, human dignity is absent and social rights are not provided.

If we speak about sanctions, it was economic sanctions, yet insignificant, that played a huge role in 2011 in reducing repression and releasing a few political prisoners (we had tens of political prisoners). It was an effective tool that helped release political prisoners.

– The world pays tribute to Vaclav Havel today. Will Belarus once see such a person as the first president of the Czech Repoublic?

– I am convinced that we will definitely have a democratic leader, if not particularly Vaclav Havel. But we need the situation that could create and support the democratic leader.

Photo: charter97.org