Chairman of European Parliament Commission Jacek Protasiewicz: “West allowed being deceived”
- 30.09.2008, 17:34
“The West has allowed being deceived by Lukashenka,” stated the European Parliament deputy, the chairman of the commission on Belarus, commenting on the results of the “parliamentary elections” in Belarus.
As informed by Radio Racyja, the politician says that the situation is very disappointing, as he knows many oppositionists himself. As Jacek Protasiewicz believes, the West has done an attempt firstly to make the Belarusian “parliament” more representative in order to make the voice of opposition more noticeable, and secondly, in order to open the doors of cooperation between the West and the east.
“The offer was formulated clearly, and was honest. It means, the democratic election in exchange for the full range of political and financial support for Belarus. There were different signals, which were received from different state structures, that they are greatly interested in good and intensive cooperation with the West. But unfortunately, the “election” has demonstrated that either Lukashenka doesn’t rule his subordinates, or it was an indecorous step of Belarusian rulers, and this indecorousness has short legs,” the politician says.
The deputy of the European Parliament claims that September 28 showed the situation as it is, in black and white. The Belarusian regime lost the chance for cooperation with the West, which could give Belarus and Lukashenka a possibility to be between Russia’s interests and cooperation with the West. Denying this concept, the politician believes, makes Belarus and its leader dependable on Russia, but it happens on the desire of the Belarusian authorities.
“It is not decided by Europe, whether the election was democratic or not. There is he OSCE mission for that, which represents not only the EU, but much more states, beginning from the US and Canada, and finishing by Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan,” Jacek Protasiewicz said.
Only on these grounds the EU would be able to adopt the decision on recognition or non-recognition of the “parliament” representative, he explains.
“Intuition suggests that this wouldn’t happen, considering the fervently formulated thoughts of numerous observers, with whom I could speak to in Minsk, and also the fact that none of the opposition candidates has been elected, it looks absolutely unbelievable,” Protasiewicz said.
“Even in African states, which are far backward in democratic development, usually have a few opposition representatives in that parliament. It looks as if Belarus is farther on this path of democracy than some post-colonial states,” he concluded.