Picket in Brussels: Free Belarus Now!

On May 23 at 1 p.m. on Schumann Square in Brussels a picket timed to the session of the Council of Foreign Affairs Ministers of the European Union will be held by Belarusians and those who want to show solidarity with them,

At the Foreign Affairs Council imposing pinpoint economic sanctions against Belarus would be considered. Free Belarus Now initiative, Office of Belarusian Political Emigration and Belarusian-European association “Maladaja Belarus” (“Young Belarus”).

-- Together with other organisations, Free Belarus Now has initiated this picket, as I had been absolutely shocked by Europe’s failure to act. Promises of serious measures against the regime are heard all the time, and there are no actions at all. Empty promises are worse than total inactivity, they are giving Lukashenka a sense of impunity. Belarus is a European country, and it is high time to get rid of the sore in the centre of Europe. There is no place for dictatorship in the civilized world. We are calling upon European countries to take resolute actions! It’s time to prove in fact, not in word, that for European politicians human rights are more important than financial interests,” told Iryna Bahdanava, a sister of Andrei Sannikov (Sannikau) and initiator of Free Belarus Now project about the objectives of the picket.

“There will be posters with appeals to European politicians, with pictures of all persons convicted for the events of December 19, 2010,” said one of the participants of the picket Yury Zhylka, Chairman of the Office of Belarusian Political Emigration. “The picket is to highlight that Belarus is a European country, and Euopre should not turn its back on Belarus, but exert all efforts to help its European future, not an Asian fate or the one belonging to the Dark Ages.”