The European Parliament insists on introducing tougher sanctions against the Belarusian regime of Alexander Lukashenko. This was stated in a resolution adopted on Thursday, February 8, in Strasbourg, in light of a new wave of mass arrests of opposition activists and members of their families in Belarus. 459 deputies voted for its adoption, 14 were against it, and 33 abstained.
The list of proposed punitive measures includes an embargo on goods produced using the forced labour of political prisoners, as well as tougher financial sanctions. In addition, European parliamentarians propose to expand the individual sanctions list of persons responsible for gross violations of human rights, adding to it high-ranking officials and law enforcement officers.
German member of the European Parliament Viola von Cramon-Taubadel called on the EU to act decisively and introduce sanctions “that will harm Lukashenko and his accomplices.” “Lukashenko threw the best of the best into prison – intellectuals, journalists, human rights activists, entrepreneurs, scientists. At the same time, he sold Belarus to Putin and turned it into a brutal weapon against Ukraine. Now Lukashenko is planning new farcical elections, to which democratic agencies are not even allowed. Lukashenko’s regime will collapse as soon as Putin falls. But we shouldn’t rely on that alone. We can do more to hold Lukashenko accountable for all the crimes he has committed over the past 27 years,” the deputy said during a discussion of the resolution on February 7, the day before its adoption.
“Not an election, but an act of violence”
The European Parliament called on EU member countries and the international community not to recognize the results of the parliamentary and local “elections” on February 25 in Belarus due to the lack of transparency, freedom and justice in their conduct, as well as repression. The Political Parties Act 2023 prevents democratic opposition parties from participating in elections, the text of the resolution recalls. “Belarus is organizing a spectacle that the regime calls elections. But this, of course, is not an election. This is an act of violence, and as such it must be carefully scrutinized,” said Swedish MEP Karin Carlsbro.
Parliamentarians also consider it necessary to further reduce Belarus’ diplomatic presence in the EU. At the same time, they called for continued support for victims of the Lukashenko regime by providing them with visas and residence permits in the European Union, as well as solving the problem of lack of citizenship, to promote the documentation of human rights violations in Belarus, to support the OHCHR review of the human rights situation in Belarus as a fully independent investigation mechanism, as well as to help bring perpetrators to justice through extraterritorial and universal jurisdiction.
“A new bottom even for this regime”
The European Parliament resolution stated that in January the Belarusian KGB carried out raids, interrogations and detentions against more than 200 family members of current and former political prisoners, as well as beneficiaries of the INeedHelpBY initiative, on charges related to “extremism”. Most of them are mothers and wives of political prisoners, including Marina Adamovich, Tatyana Sevyarynets and Daria Losik.
20 political scientists, journalists and sociologists, whom Lukashenko’s regime calls “Tikhanovskaya’s analysts,” were additionally charged in absentia, and if convicted, they face confiscation of property and deprivation of citizenship. Political prisoners Mikola Kozlov, Ryhor Kastus, Mikola Statkevich and Pavel Sevyarynets face isolation, torture, denial of medical care and forced labour. “The cruelty of the Lukashenko regime knows no bounds, and we continue to see a deterioration in the treatment of political prisoners in Belarus. The arrest of family members, in particular wives and mothers, is a new low, even for this regime,” said MEP from Slovakia Miriam Lexmann.
Ksenia Polska
DW
