European Parliament holds hearing on Belarus

The situation in Belarus can be settled only by means of fundamental changes in the country, the participants of the meeting said.

According to the communiqué following the hearing results, the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs jointly with the Subcommittee on Human Rights and in association with the Delegation for relations with Belarus held exchange of views on the situation in Belarus on July 13 in Brussels with participation of international experts.

Commenting on the ongoing protests in Belarus, Neil Jarman, the chairman of the OSCE/ODIHR Expert Panel on Freedom of Assembly, said that once the jinn had been released from the bottle (rallies on December 19), it would be difficult to drive him back into the bottle. In his opinion, only fundamental changes in the country can settle the situation, BelaPAN reports.

Professor of international law Emmanuel Decaux, OSCE Moscow Mechanism rapporteur on Belarus, said the increased interest of European politicians in the events in the Arab world must not distract attention from Belarus, the country in the centre of Europe. As said by him, the Arab Spring should not lead to the European winter.

Ales Byaltatski, the Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights, noted the international pressure on Belarus began to bring results that can be noticed in abandoning a claim of the Ministry of Information against “Nasha Niva” newspaper.

Gabrielle Albertini, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Jacek Protasiewicz, the Head of the Delegation for Relations with Belarus, made a joint statement following the results of the meeting. They expressed concern about the events after the protest demonstration in Minsk on December 19, 2010, and the current crackdown on initiators and participants of silent protests, independent journalists and media.

MEPs urged the Belarusian authorities to immediately stop persecution and any other humiliating actions in relation to Belarusian society and restrain from any similar actions in future.