BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

22/02/2008

EP Didn't Call Lukashenko Last Dictator

European Parliament has passed the resolution on the rights' violation in Belarus, Telegraph reported. MEPs lambasted the leadership of Belarus but crossed out the section where Belarus is called Europe's last dictatorship.

Bernd Posselt, one of the masterminds of the resolution, said MEPs manifested readiness for the dialogue with Minsk and that their desire was to help residents of the republic, which would be completely isolated should the authoritarian regime survive. EP won't be able to do anything if it happens, Posselt made clear.

During the Thursday afternoon human rights debate, MEPs condemned the harassment and prosecutions of democratic opposition and civil society activists in Belarus but didn't call it dictatorship.

It was U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that named Belarus the last dictatorship in Europe when addressing the opposition in spring of 2005. "Good that she knows about the existence of Belarus," Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko commented on her words.

Source:

http://www.kommersant.com/p-12113/r_527/EP_Lukashenko_dictator/

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