Ronald Pofalla: There will be no dialogue with Minsk while there are political prisoners

While there are political prisoners in the country, Germany’s attitude towards official Minsk will not change.

A delegation comprised of Belarusian opposition and independent experts had meetings in Germany federal chancellor’s administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany and Bundestag. The main event was the discussion of the situation in Belarusian after the elections, which was organized by Konrad Adenauer foundation, the UCP’s press-service reports.

As one of the participants of the Belarusian delegation, UCP’s leader Anatol Liabedzka told Radio Svaboda, during that discussion he presented a three steps strategy for Belarus: release of the political prisoners, elections according to the OSCE standards and a modernization plan for Belarus:

“There were many questions as to the unity of the opposition. I tried to make an accent on the fact that now the rules of the game are more important. If there are no rules, then it all comes down to how many opposition candidates will end up in prison – one or ten”.

Apart from that the Belarusian delegation held meetings in Bundestag, MFA, Germany federal chancellor’s administration. The Bundestag members communicated their position as to the results of the elections to the House of Representatives of Belarus, Anatol Liabedzka said:

“There was a very tough assessment of the electoral campaign. Complete boycott of the appointed “parliament members” is in fact a joint position of the Bundestag members. With the exception of the left. All other fractions are solidary here”.

The head of the chancellor’s administration Ronald Pofalla during his meeting with Belarusian opposition showed his awareness and interest in improvement of the situation in Belarus, Anatol Liabedzka noted:

“The man outcome of that meeting is that he claimed that while there are political prisoners there will be no change in the relations with official Minsk”.

Anatol Liabedzka considers the talks in Berlin very important as Germany is the motor of the European Union, including the issue of the relations with Belarus.

We would remind that the Belarusian delegation, which went to Berlin, comprised of the leader of the United Civic Party Anatol Liabedzka, BPF’s representative Youry Chavusau, a member of the organizational committee for creation of a party Belarusian Christian Democracy Volga Kavalkova, the director of the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies Aliaksei Pikulik.