"There's Still No Red-White-Red-White Flag Among Flags Of Council Of Europe": PACE Debates On Belarus

The participants of the discussion called to continue pressure on the Belarusian regime.

On June 23, the debate on Belarus "The Situation in Belarus: a Threat for the Whole Europe" was held in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The debates were broadcasted on the PACE site.

The main theses that were heard at the debates were:

"Lukashenka has been maneuvering between the European Union and Russia for 25 years. I sincerely hope that this game will not end up with a North Korea-type country in the center of Europe," said representative of Estonia Maria Yufereva-Skuratovski.

"The situation in Belarus represents an 'unpunished evil' that threatens all of Europe," said Ukrainian representative Dmitry Natalukha.

"The Ryanair landing is an attack on civil aviation norms and a serious threat to security," expressed the opinion Kimmo Kiljunen, representative of Finland.

Aleksei Gocharenko, a member of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE, said that pressure on Lukashenko should be tightened:

"I have repeatedly raised the issue of human rights violations in Belarus. And my amendments were included in the report, which was approved in spring at the PACE. In particular, I proposed to create a permanent body at the Council of Europe to monitor the situation in Belarus. I also pointed out that economic, financial and political cooperation with Belarus must depend on the release of all political prisoners and end of repression.

Dictator Lukashenka has not heeded his demands and during this time he managed to turn into a terrorist by kidnapping oppositionist Raman Pratasevich and forcing his plane to land. We must toughen the pressure on Lukashenka's regime in order to deprive it of the opportunity to exist!

The white-red-white flag is still not present among the flags of the Council of Europe. But the time will come and this flag will appear on one of the flagpoles in Strasbourg. Long live Belarus!