Valyantsin Stefanovich: Lukashenka’s regime is not flirting with European Union any more

The brutal dispersal of peaceful rallies is a signal for European Union that the regime is not going to give up repressions, human rights activists state.

On October 16, on the Day of Solidarity, Minsk riot policemen held the most and pitiless disband of a peaceful rally in recent time. Policemen were brutally beating up oppositionists, throwing them into paddy wagons. Force was used against journalists. They were pushed away, their cameras snatched while they performed their professional duty.

As a human rights activist Valyantsin Stefanovich said in an interview to www.charter97.org website, such actions of Belarusian authorities are a signal to the European Union.

“Authorities continue to practice violence and ignore human rights,” the human rights activist said. “People staged a protest to express their situation in Belarus. They were detained and beaten, their rights were violated. Actions of the authorities are demonstration in their nature. It is a signal not only to the Belarusian society, but to the international community, that the regime is not going to fight for improvement of the climate in the sphere of human rights. They show that cruel punitive policy would be continued. And it means that freedom of peaceful rallies in Belarus is impossible both in theory and in practice. The Belarusian regime has chosen such a method of “communication” with Europe. While in the beginning of the “dialogue” the government tried to flirt with the EU, the events of October 16 have shown another face of the Belarusian regime. Apparently, they do not want to normalize relations with the European Union”.