BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20/10/2008

Opposition leader: Belarus needs clever EU help

Belarus needs EU help coupled with political conditions in order to reform, because otherwise the country will end up as part of Russia, the country's opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich told EurActiv Czech Republic in an interview.

On behalf of all opposition parties, Alexander Milinkevich ran against incumbent President and "last dictator in Europe" Alexander Lukashenko in the 2006 presidential elections. The same year he was awarded the European parliament Sakharov prize.

What is the real weight of the Belarus opposition forces?

There have not been any substantial changes in the volume of opposition supporters in recent years. According to our estimates, these could be approximately one third of the population. The opposition consists of people who long for democratisation and orientation of our country towards the EU - people who are mostly younger, more educated and better informed. Currently, it even seems that the number of active supporters of Lukashenko's regime is diminishing. However, we are not very successful in persuading people to cooperate actively with us. Besides fear of the regime, our greatest enemy is apathy in society.

Surely, one of the reasons is also the fact the opposition is absent in the public space. We are not on TV, we cannot access radio and we are not even in printed media. Besides, we also may not always be very skilled in addressing society in an appealing manner, and people therefore do not know what we offer and what we are fighting for.

President Lukashenko has displayed signs of slightly opening the regime, like releasing political prisoners before the September parliamentary elections. Are these changes only designed to appease Western democracies or are they more deeply rooted?

Until recently, the regime did not care what Western democracies thought. The reason was that Moscow supported the regime very strongly in economic, diplomatic and political terms, because Lukashenko had promised he would merge Belarus with Russia. However, once he suddenly changed his mind and reconsidered his promises, Russia threatened him with very sharp increases of natural resource imports to world market prices, and told him that if Belarus was unable to pay the new prices, Russia could lend him the funds needed. Besides, our economy is very energy-demanding, much more than that of the Czech Republic or Poland. Our economy has not undergone any reforms. It is not a market economy.

Lukashenko therefore needs support from Western democracies, because it is only from them that he can hope for the support he needs to launch reforms. Naturally, Russia would not help him to do such things. This is also why Lukashenko releases political prisoners, tries to improve his image and talks about dialogue. For him, it means a way to stay in power. For us, launching reforms is the way to preserve Belarus's independence. Certainly we are not against Western support for the reform effort in Belarus and helping the country economically, but there must be also very strict and firm conditions. Because the regime is taking pro-reform steps but at the same time fears them.

The Belarus minister for foreign affairs was invited for the first time to EU foreign ministers' council in Luxembourg on 13 October. How would you comment?

We are happy there is some kind of dialogue, but both this and any future meetings should be conditional upon releasing all political prisoners in Belarus. If Europe does not attempt any dialogue of this kind, Belarus will end up as a part of Russia.

What are your expectations from the Czech EU Presidency?

For us, the Czech Presidency [from January 2009] is very good news. The Czech Republic has always been a very active in helping solve Belarusian problems. Many Czech politicians have repeatedly said Belarus should return to Europe and vice versa - Europe will never be complete without Belarus. The Czech Republic has also fought hard for keeping moral standards within EU policy. We hope the Czech Republic will promote such policy also in the future and the presidency certainly offers the chance to promote this approach even more.

We wish Europe would support economic reforms in Belarus. But should such policy stand on moral grounds, there must be very specific conditions and requirements aiming to liberalise our country. There should be always a requirement for greater freedom for media. Media must be able to work legally and print their material. Not like now, when all the materials are printed abroad and then smuggled to Belarus. There must be also greater freedom for the activity of political parties and NGOs. And many more requirements the government should comply with.

Source:

http://www.euractiv.com/en/enlargement/opposition-leader-belarus-needs-clever-eu-help/article-176511

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