MEP Charles Tannock: All Lukashenka's Promises Are Worthless

EU sanctions against the regime in Belarus are necessary.

MEP for London Charles Tannock stated this at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg:

– Freedom Day at the end of March was not only a celebration of independence, but also a test of the state of democracy in Belarus. I'm afraid that there won't be pleasant surprises in 2018, although Lukashenka allowed formal celebrations for the first time this year. We hoped that these celebrations would be a turning point regarding the situation with repression against the people (by the way, the KGB still exists in Belarus), but there were reports of detentions of opposition leaders, their supporters and bloggers, and the independent news website Charter 97 is still blocked."

It seems that all Lukashenka's promises to strive for a prosperous democracy in Belarus are worthless.

Despite EU sanctions and numerous efforts to hold the dialogue on human rights, the electoral legislation has not been reformed, and the regime of President Lukashenka continues to oppress opposition media and non-governmental organizations.

The door for constructive dialogue and cooperation remains open, but EU sanctions must remain in place until real progress is achieved for the Belarusians.

We remind that the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the situation in Belarus at a meeting in Strasbourg on Thursday.

The resolution expresses regret over the persecution of independent journalists and mass media in Belarus during local elections. The blocking of the information portal Charter-97 and the beating of Andrei Kozel, the journalist of the Belsat TV channel, are given as examples. The European Parliament urged to immediately unblock Charter97.org and to abandon measures that threaten freedom of speech.

On January 24, Lukashenka's regime blocked the independent information resource Charter97.org. The blocking was confirmed by the First Deputy Minister of Information Ihar Lutski. The Ministry of Information is headed by Aliaksandr Karliukevich.

You can bypass the blocking in several ways:

– The easiest way to read Charter-97

– How to bypass the Charter-97 blocking

– How to bypass the blocking on Android and iOS

– Change DNS on your computer and read the Charter

– Read Charter-97 in social networks.