Vytautas Landsbergis: “One shouldn’t trust person accused of political killings”

Alyaksandr Lukashenka shouldn’t be invited for an EU summit in Prague, Lithuanian MEP thinks.

On March 16, the EU Council suspended visa bans on the Belarusian authorities for 9 months. Vytautas Landsbergis supposes that by this decision the European Union has demonstrated it keeps the doors open for Alyaksandr Lukashenka if the latter will chose the way of changes.

Vytautas Landsbergis thinks that Belarus had better be represented by someone else at the May summit in Prague, where the Eastern Partnership program will be launched, Radio Svaboda reports.

“In my view, Lukashenka shouldn’t be invited at least unless Belarus takes more concrete steps towards this compromise democratization. We can’t see it now... Perhaps, the EU should offer Minsk to send its foreign minister as an observer. Something like this would be better than welcoming the person, accused of political killings, with open arms,” the MEP said.

According to Landsbergis, the European Union should cooperate with Minsk and remind about its requirements, in particular, seek for an answer about further destiny of forcefully disappeared people. Former head of the Lithuanian parliament Vytautas Landsbergis spoke against turning over a new leaf in relations between the EU and Belarus.

His Belarusian colleague Stanislau Shushkevich, former head of the Supreme Council, supports this position. He believes the EU shouldn’t forget about its 12 conditions to official Minsk. The politician reminded a recent statement by Javier Solana, who said the EU didn’t set any conditions for cooperation in Belarus.

“This is a very bad step towards those who are struggling for democratization of Belarus and respect for human rights. The regime cripples and destroys people cruelly... And a high representative comes from civilized Europe and says he has no conditions for this barbarity,” the former head of the Supreme Council said.