Lithuanian Seim Deputies do not approve IMF loans for Lukashenka

Belarusian authorities should immediately liberate all political prisoners whose life and health are threatened today, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lithuanian Seim Emanuelis Zingeris told representatives of the Belarusian civil society.

The Foreign Affairs Committee head made a statement concerning the situation around political prisoner Zmitser Bandarenka who was moved to the investigation isolation ward after a complicated operation on his spine, and soon will be transferred to prison.

- We express our deep concern with the health of coordinator of the civic campaign European Belarus Zmitser Bandarenka, who has recently had a complicated spine surgery. Since April this year he has been passing his two-year sentence for having taken part in the civic protest against the falsified results of the presidential voting. After such complex operations a long rehabilitation period, constant control and consultations of independent medical professionals are necessary. Nevertheless, as far as we know Zmitser with his severe medical condition suffers from pains after the surgery, but is going to be transferred back to prison even without the rehabilitation period. In case he is not provided with decent medical control and rehabilitation he can be handicapped.

The actions of Belarusian authorities regarding the well-known activist both pose a real threat to his health and create an atmosphere of permanent terror and intimidation of political opposition in Belarus, which makes such actions unreasonable and unacceptable.

We urge Belarusian authorities to provide Zmitser Bandarenka with necessary medical control and rehabilitation period. We watch with scrutiny the development of his case and the cases of other political prisoners in Belarus, and once again demand their immediate liberation.

We want to draw the attention of the Red Cross International Committee to another case of alarming arbitrariness, when a person’s health and life are ignored in Belarus, - Emanuelis Zingeris said.

Furthermore, Lithuanian Seim Deputy raised the issue of the bank accounts of Belarusian human rights activists that have been revealed to Belarusian authorities, and pointed out that the issue of data communication to dictatorships will be discussed during the meeting of the head of parliamentary committees of the EU members.

According to Zingeris, this question was agreed upon between him and his Polish colleague Andrej Halicki. The issue of data communication to non-democratic states and separation of political and criminal information will be discussed during the meeting of heads of Foreign Affairs Committees of EU members on 5 September in Warsaw.

Zingeris did not question the importance of criminal data communication, but he emphasized that a very solid system should be in place, referring to the recent situation when the data of human rights activist Bialatski was communication to Belarusian authorities.

Moreover, Zingeris recalled the statement made during the meeting of EU Foreign Affairs Committees on 9 August where the Committee called upon the government of Lithuania to guarantee support of the Belarusian opposition whose members are now in Lithuania, and assist liberation of political prisoners in Belarus. The decision of a group of US Senators not to give Belarus an IMF loan unless all political prisoners are freed was approved of.

The meeting was attended by representatives of Belarusian emigrants to Lithuania, human rights activists, and editor of the website www.charter97.org Natallia Radzina who has recently applied for political asylum in Lithuania.

In particular, she emphasized that the scandal around Lithuanian and Polish bank accounts being revealed to Belarusian authorities has been discussed with no visible results for too long. “It is high time decisive steps are taken,” she said.

According to Radina, this is a crucial topic, but the discussion taken public attention away from what is going on in Belarus. Such as the political prisoners issue, which is being pushed back from the front covers.

“In Lithuania, as well as in Poland, it is now being investigated who has provided the bank accounts data, while what has happened to Bialatski is much less discussed, - Radina expressed her concern. She said, “the interior conflicts take too much time, and the most important is missing. Some authorities lose their jobs, but the EU policy regarding Belarus is not re-considered while this is exactly what needs to be done. Firing a couple of clerks doesn’t solve anything.”

According to Radina, it is the nature of the EU policy regarding Belarus, in other words its “existence solely on paper in form of resolutions and statements” made it possible to communicate the bank accounts data.

After the presidential election in Belarus, dozens of people are still in prison, including some presidential candidates. As Radina put it, the key demand must be the liberation of all political prisoners and organization of a free voting.

“This is what Europe forgets about. If Lukashenka starts using political prisoners as bait in his dialogue with the EU, you will forget once again that he is not legitimate and keeps the power with armed violence. (…) The situation with bank accounts has revealed the very problem of EU’s relations with dictatorships,” she said.