Sikorski: It’s high time Lukashenka recall other dictator’s lives

The European Union and Poland in particular “should not boycott Lukashenka,” believes Polish Foreign Minister.

He believes that the Belarusian official leader should be “encouraged when he does something positive, and punished when he does something in contravention to European values.”

Such a statement has been made by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski in an interview to BelaPAN.

The European Union should continue the policy of “laying down terms” in relations with Minsk, the head of the Polish diplomacy stressed. “If Lukashenka releases people from prisons and diminishes pressure, as it was before the election in 2010, we talk to him and offer to continue this policy. If he imprisons his opponents, sanctions should be imposed,” Sikorski explained.

To the question whether he thinks that the united Europe has no effective leverage over Belarus, the Foreign Minister of Poland with is presiding in the EU, in particular said: “Belarusians themselves have the greatest influence on the events in Belarus. Now the situation in Belarus is controlled by the president and his foil, and we would like it to be controlled by the Belarusian nation.”

According to Sikorski, “the fate of the dictators who have lost power over the recent months” is an occasion for the Belarusian leadership to start thinking.

To the question whether Sikorski believes that the Belarusian regime is able to reform, democratize, the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry answered: “It is not too late for Lukashenka to go the way of Jaruzelski, who lives in his country and who had been visited in the hospital by Lech Walesa recently.”

At the same time, the Polish Minister called statements of the Belarusian leadership that the harsh policy of Warsaw towards the official Minsk is explained by Poland’s claims over a considerable part of the Belarusian territory “nonsense.”

Sikorski informed that on October 10 the Polish Foreign Ministry is set to invite the Ambassador of Belarus and express strong protest, as “we cannot be tolerant to such absolutely unsubstantiated statements.”

Earlier at the press-conference for Russian journalists on October 7 Alyaksandr Lukashenka stated that Poles are initiators of the harsh policy of the EU towards the Belarusian leadership, as they “dreaming of a border to be drawn next to Minsk.”