“Dialogue” adherents banned from entering Belarus as well

Representatives of the Dortmund International Educational Center do not know the reasons why Dr. Astrid Sahm was banned from entering Belarus.

Peter Junge-Wentrup, Director of the International Education Centre of Dortmund, does not have information about the reasons of banning entry to Belarus for the former German director of Johannes Rau International Centre for Education and Exchange (IBB Minsk) Astrid Sahm. He said that on March 23 to journalists in Minsk.

We remind that on March 18 Ms. Sahm was told in the National Airport of Minsk that though she had a Belarusian visa, she cannot enter the country, Astrid Sahm planned to visit Minsk to take part in the opening ceremony of the exhibition “Chernobyl: People. Places. Solidarity. Future.”

“We all really appreciate Ms. Sahm, as she has done a lot for Belarus, in particular, for creation of the network of friendly organizations, aimed at reconciliation and extension of the dialogue between Belarus and the EU,” Peter Junge-Wentrup said.

As said by him, now the leadership of the Centre is carrying out negotiations on this issue with the Foreign Ministry of Germany and other governmental agencies. Peter Junge-Wentrup has also noted that there people on the blacklist of the EU “who are also in favour of reconciliation and dialogue, however, they had been banned from entering the EU.”

As said by the head of Dortmund Educational Centre, the fact that black lists of the EU and Belarus exist, is to influence the work of international centers considerably.

“Now we are carrying out talks with German politicians in Berlin, so that the people who are banned from entering the EU, but who are doing a lot in the direction of reconciliation and dialogue, could visit the European Union in exceptional cases at least,” Peter Junge-Wentrup said.

“We do not know whether these talks would be a success, but we can say from experience that we achieve most of the desired objectives,” he added.

Johannes Rau International Centre for Education and Exchange (IBB Minsk) is a joint project of Germany and Belarus, it started its work in 1994. among its founders are Dortmund Educational Centre, Minsk city executive committee, “Belarusbank”. Astrid Sahm was the German director of the IBB for a long time. In January 2001 she started work in Dortmund Educational Centre. Olga Rensh was appointed the new German director of the IBB Minsk, she is to enter office on April 1.