European Commissioner Štefan Füle: release of Belarusian political prisoners remains a principal issue
The release of the political prisoners
is a pre-condition for the beginning of a dialogue between the EU and
the official Minsk. It was once again stated by the European
Commissioner during a meeting with the deputy head of the Human
Rights Center “Viasna” Valiantsin Stefanovich and the head of the
Belarusian Association of Journalists Zhana Litvina on 5 December in
Brussels.
A number of meetings with representatives of the
European Parliament and the European Commissioner for Enlargement and
European Neighborhood Policy Štefan Füle place within the framework
of the visit of the Belarusian human rights defenders to Brussels,
organized by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
As said by Valiantsin Stefanovich, a discussion of the
situation of human rights in Belarus took place during the meeting
with the European Commissioner.
First of all, it concerned
the issue of political prisoners and persecution of independent mass
media. The European Commissioner assured that the release of the
political prisoners is considered by EU as a pre-condition for
starting a dialogue with the official Minsk. “Mr. Füle expressed
support to all human rights defenders of Belarus and the Human Rights
Center “Viasna”, which, according to him, continues working in
such hard circumstances, to Ales Bialiatski and all political
prisoners,” added Mr. Stefanovich.
As stated by Zhana
Litvina to the BAJ press-service, the liberalization of the media
sphere was also discussed during the meeting.
“Any
cooperation and partnership are based on mutual trust and freedom of
expression. Three years ago, when a dialogue of the EU with the
official Minsk started, five recommendations concerning mass media
were worked out for Belarus. Unfortunately, for the last three years,
none of them has been fulfilled by the Belarusian authorities.
Thus this is my principle standing that any dialogue on
modernization, any negotiation process must begin with though small,
but still steps from the Belarusian side.
Five specific steps
were enumerated today that the journalistic community has long time
demanded from the authorities. These steps would testify to the
slightest readiness of the official Minsk to start talks.
These
demands call to dismiss charges against Andrei Pachobut and Anton
Surapin; to stop persecuting the magazine Arche and to
unblock its bank account; to impose moratorium on six odious criminal
articles threatening freedom of expression; to introduce notifying
procedure to get accreditation, and to stop violent obstruction to
journalists’ activities, that happen in Belarus almost each month,”
said Zhana Litvina.
After the meeting with Štefan Füle
Valiantsin Stefanovich and Zhana Litvina met with journalists of the
leading media, including the “Euronews” TV channel and Radio
“Liberty”.