US senators urge not to give Lukashenka a loan

The United States will not support IMF aid to Belarus if the country does not carry out real political and economic reforms.

Six US senators wrote a letter to Timothy Geithner, the US representative in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), calling him to vote against issuing a loan to Belarus.

The senators think that giving a loan to Belarus would contradict the interests of the United States and the European Union, Radio Svaboda reports.

The senators stress that the US and the EU have made joint actions in response to the events in Belarus. They welcome this collaboration and the measures taken against the persons responsible for the falsified presidential elections, brutal crackdown on civil society and persecution of opposition leaders and presidential candidates. The senators suppose that the IMF should join this collaboration.

Belarus earlier received billions of dollars of aid from international institutions, but the country’s government failed to carry out structural reforms expected by the International Monetary Fund, the American politicians note. The government under Lukashenka’s authoritarian rule provides an irresponsible and destructive economic policy.

The senators urge the US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to say that the US will not support any IMF aid to Belarus if real political and economic reforms, including immediate and unconditional release of political prisoners, are not carried out in the country. The senators call to apply further pressure on the regime and impose more sanctions on state-run enterprises, such as Belaruskali, Beltransgaz, MTS, MAZ, Mozyr refinery and Naftan, if reforms are not carried out.

The people of Belarus struggling for freedom and well-being must know that the international community of free nations supports them, senators Joseph Lieberman, Richard Durbin, Benjamin Cardin, Mark Kirk, John McCain and n Shaheen say.