Milinkevich against isolation of Lukashenka’s regime

• 17.02.2010, 8:41

Returning to isolation “would be a tragedy for Belarus”, the leader of the For Freedom movement said.

Alyaksandr Milinkevich said this at his meeting with EP President Jerzy Buzek.

The Polish news agency PAP informs Milinkevich said compromises with the regime were not possible, but noted: “Returning to isolation of Belarus would be a tragedy for my country. I stand against isolation.”

“I do not like the word ‘sanctions’. I am speaking not about sanctions but about termination of rendering aid. For example, the EU tells the Belarusian authorities: ‘If you move to European standards, we support you economy.’ Financial aid should depend on concrete steps on liberalization. If there are steps, aid will be rendered,” Euroradio quotes Milinkevich.

Jerzy Buzek supported the idea that economic aid to Minsk must depend on a process of democratic reforms in Belarus. He spoke about loans of the International Monetary Bank, European Commission, and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Radio Svaboda reports.

“The Belarusian government should understand how much can be lost if human rights are not observed,” the EP President said.

According to Buzek, repressions against the Union of Poles led by Andzelika Borys are repressions against the whole democratic society in Belarus.

Milinkevich also called on all EU states to conduct the common policy towards Belarus.

As charter97.org has already reported, the Belarusian authorities seized the Polish House in Ivyanets from the Union of Poles, threw Union leaders Andrzej Poczbut, Igor Bancer, Mieczyslaw Jaskiewicz into jails, arrested dozens of the organization activists, suppressed a peaceful youth action on St Valentine’s Day during last week, brutally dispersed an action of solidarity with Belarusian Poles on February 16, arrested 24 people.