President of the European Parliament receives petition calling for religious freedoms in Belarus
29.05.2008 | Publications
Hans-Gert Pöttering, the President of the European Parliament, has met with a delegation of the Belarusian opposition, led by Mr Aliaksandr Milinkevich, the 2006 Sakharov Prize winner, and Mr Pawel Seviarynets, Co-Chairman of the Belarusian Christian Democratic Party.The aim of the meeting was to present the President of Parliament with the petition calling for the protection of the right to freedom of confession in Belarus. Together with the petition the President received copies of over 50 000 signatures of Belarusian citizens expressing their support for this initiative. The petition will be now dealt with by the petitions committee of the European Parliament.
The President commented: "Belarus regrettably is the last dictatorship in Europe. Basic freedoms of th e citizens of that country are not being respected by the authorities, this includes religious rights. I have total sympathy with the initiative of this petition and in particular with the courage of tens of thousands of Belarusians who decided to express their support for it in such an open way".
The President also used the opportunity to call, yet again, on the authorities in Minsk to conduct serious political change. " I strongly urge the Belarusian authorities to release all political prisoners, like Alyaksandr Kazulin, to abolish the death penalty, assure the functioning of free media, independence of the judiciary, the right of the people to freely elect their representatives in accordance with all international standards, respect for basic democratic values and human rights. Only fulfilling these basic democratic conditions will allow the European Union to normalise its relationship with Belarus" President Pöttering stated.
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