Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-14-Speech-2-027"
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"en.20040914.3.2-027"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, often referred to as Europe’s last dictatorship, Belarus seems to have been completely unaffected by the tumultuous events of the last decade, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the democratisation of Eastern and Central Europe and the unification of Europe.
The dictator Lukashenko is clinging desperately to power, and he has now announced a referendum in order to extend his term of office for an unlimited period. Mr Wiersma talked of a constitutional
and that is precisely what this is. He appears to want to follow in the footsteps of another dictator, Fidel Castro, who is equally past his sell-by date. With the systematic and hardly sophisticated system of electoral fraud devised by Lukashenko’s regime, there is unfortunately not very much to suggest that either the referendum or the election on 17 October will in any way be fair. This means that Lukashenko can remain where he is, while his people become ever poorer and ever more isolated.
It is of course shameful that we in Europe have a Communist dictatorship as our closest neighbour. In spite of countless attempts to influence the regime using the carrot and stick method, we have failed, and failed totally. Trying to cooperate with the regime has been a pointless and fruitless exercise, and the country is thus miles away from embracing the values we defend. Freedom of expression is minimal. Human rights campaigners and opponents of the regime are oppressed and persecuted. Peaceful demonstrators are arrested, tortured and given prison sentences following trials that smack of nothing more than farce. Belarus is the only country in Europe that executes its prisoners. There is extensive trafficking in women. We find thousands of Belorussian women on many of the streets of Europe. Many people who have called the regime into question have disappeared in mysterious circumstances.
Belarus is our neighbour, however, and we cannot abandon the Belorussian people to their fate. Just like everyone else, they are entitled to freedom and democracy. Just as the Commissioner says, we in Parliament, the Council and the Commission must therefore try to find ways of giving economic, political and, especially, moral support to the courageous people and organisations that, in spite of everything, exist and fight for democracy, human dignity and the principles of the constitutional state. The official pressure must be intensified. We must demand that observers also be allowed to monitor this illegitimate referendum. My group would like to see Parliament send observers on 17 October.
Our new Member States have not only afforded us geographical proximity to Belarus, but also knowledge of that country and of its history. It is important to use this knowledge and to be creative in finding ways of supporting the forces of democracy in Belarus. Many people see Europe in terms of hope for a better future and of the opportunity for, and possibility of, a new life. We must of course preserve the dream that, one day, a democratic and open Belarus, operating a market economy, might also become a member of the European Union."@en1
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