David Kramer: Pressure should be exerted on dictator Lukashenka

At the conference in the US Belarus was called “an anomaly of modern Europe.”

As informed by Voice of America radio station, making a speech at the conference in the Johns Hopkins University, Orest Deychakiwsky, Policy Advisor at the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (US Helsinki Commission), called Belarus “an anomaly of modern Europe.” Deychakiwsky was an international observer at the presidential election in 2006, and told indignantly that members of election commissions were doing their best to hide their work on vote count. He reminded that all elections held during Lukashenka’s rule, fell short of European standards.

At present, as said by him, the situation with the elections has improved, however election commissions of all levels are still under total control of Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Besides, the authorities are doing everything to deny the population of Belarus the access to objective information, and descend to pressure, for instance, students are threatened to be evicted from universities, and state employees (80% of working population of the country) are threatened by dismissal.

David Kramer, executive director of Freedom House, a human rights organization, recently holding a high position in the US Department of State, reminds that the US and the EU imposed sanctions against Lukashenka’s regime. The sanctions’ objective was to make Minsk adequately investigate murders of oppositional politicians and journalists, and to release political prisoners.

Lukashenka and a number of his retinue members were deprived the right to visit Europe and the US. Besides, sanctions were imposed on a number of Belarusian enterprises in which “Lukashenka and his retinue had a personal interest”, as Mr Kramer said. According to Kramer, sanctions played their role finally. After long talks Minsk had to release political prisoners (including the former contender of Lukashenka in the presidential election Alyaksandr Kazulin).

However the EU lifted sanctions soon after the end of August war 2008, expecting to persuade Lukashenka not to recognize independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in this way.

As a result, Lukashenka started to visit the EU countries, and recently a number of European politicians visited Minsk on official visits, which according to David Kramer “creates an impression that the EU places a stake on Lukashenka, hoping to maintain independence of Belarus from Russia with his help.”

David Kramer believes that it is a wrong practice: “Lukashenka uses the West against Russia and vice versa expertly, sometimes he even throws together the EU and the US.” Kramer does not expect that the upcoming election would meet international standards and finds it necessary to continue exerting pressure on Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s regime.