Le Monde: Lukashenka must be stopped now, otherwise he to become new Gaddafi

Wile the attention of the West is locked on revolutions in Arab world, the dictatorship in Belarus is speeding up the flywheel of repressions.

On March 24 the founder and chairman of Vyasna human rights centre Ales Byalyatski visited Paris. He urged the French Foreign Ministry to impose economic sanctions against the Belarusian regime, Le Monde writes.

In the nearest future the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) plans to publish a report on repressive actions of the authorities of Belarus. As said by the head of the FIDH mission in Belarus Sacha Koulaeva, “repressions on lawyers defending the detained, in particular, the oppositional; candidates, have become something new for us.” She notes that “such things didn’t happen even in Soviet times.”

On March 21 the European Union added 19 names on the black list of 158 Belarusian officials, who are banned entry to the EU because of their involvement in the recent repressions. However, as said by Vyasna chairman, these measures are “ineffective.” “Lukashenka has frightened greatly,” Byalyatski said to the publication. “As we have seen at the example of Tunisia and Egypt, such regimes can fall any moment. In the run-up to the elections he got an impression that freedom of speech would result in the loss of control over the society, and he was scared by that.”

Byalyatski speaks in favour of tightening the economic sanctions, in order to stifle the regime and provoke its collapse. “They have a stomach instead of brains,” Byalyatski said about Belarusian officials. “They think only about privileges and international credits. When humanistic values are discussed with them, their eyes are empty.”

According to Byalyatski, the European Union should consider three types of measures: freeze on granting loans, denial to buy armaments and oil products from Belarus. “If prompt actions are taken, the regime can fall down in just a few months,” the human rights activist believes.

Besides, Le Monde writes with a reference to certain sources that the Belarusian currency resources are almost exhausted, there the real budget deficit has crept up to catastrophic dimensions. The threat of devaluation is hanging over the country. “We must stop Lukashenka now, otherwise he will turn into a new Gaddafi,” the newspaper quotes the words of Sacha Koulaeva.