Lukashenka had telephone conversation with EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner

• 13.05.2009, 9:00

The press service of the Belarusian ruler doesn’t’ say who initiated the conversation.

It is reported that Lukashenka and the European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy discussed the implementation of the Eastern Partnership initiative, the relations between Belarus and the European Union, the forthcoming visit of Benita Ferrero-Waldner to Belarus. No details of the talk are reported.

It should be reminded that visits of the EU commissioner to Minsk were called off two times this year.

During the meeting with the chairman of the United Civil Party (UCP) Anatol Lyabedzka and a politician Alyaksandr Kazulin on March 11 in Strasbourg, the European Commissioner noted that Europe cannot play with the values which are fundamental values for the European Union.

New political prisoners appeared in Belarus in February – leaders of entrepreneurs’ movement Mikalai Autukhovich, Yury Lyavonau, and Uladzimir Asipenka.

Other young people involved in the case are facing the threat of imprisonment as well: Maxim Dashuk, Alyaksandr Charnyshou, Tatsyana Bondar, Alyaksandr Barazenka, Paval Vinahradau, Mikhail Subach, Alyaksei Bondar, Mikhail Kryvau, Mikhail Pashkevich, Alyaksandr Straltsou, Artsyom Dubski.

Besides, two peaceful opposition rallies, on St. Valentine’s Day and on Solidarity Day, were brutally disbanded in February.

In March, a human rights activist Yana Palyakova committed suicide. She had been sentenced to 2.5 years of restriction of freedom.

Opposition still does not have access to state-run mass media, and most independent newspapers still do not have a possibility to be printed and distributed at the territory of Belarus.