Belarusians Suffered their "Bloody Sunday," Buzek

Chairman of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek urged on January 13  in his statement, timed to the 20th anniversary of the tragic events in Vilnius, not to forget about Belarus. "My thoughts are directed to the immediate neighbor of Lithuania, Belarus, which nation experienced its own "Bloody Sunday" <...> during the night of December 19, 2010," the politician said.

Jerzy Buzek said, recalling "the courage and the unity of the Baltic peoples of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, whose peaceful revolution with flags and singing broke one of the most inhuman totalitarian regimes in the world history, that we must not forget about the people, still being under the yoke," BelaPAN.

"We should show a complete solidarity with the Belarusian people, deserving more than anyone else in Europe that the spirit of freedom, democracy and independence to reach its country in the end," said the head of the European Parliament.


EU Communication with "Criminal Regime of Belarus" Should be Frozen, the Estonian MEP

In turn, the MEP of Estonia Kristiina Ojuland said, speaking at an emergency meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, that the European Union should freeze relations with the Belarusian authorities until all Belarusian political, as the EU believes, prisoners could be released. According to her, one should exclude any cooperation with Belarus in the framework of the "Eastern Partnership" until "the current criminal regime doesn't fall," IA "REGNUM-Belarus" reports.

Kristina Ojuland believes that relations can be normalized only after the investigation of all cases of violence by the Belarusian authorities against the opposition and holding new presidential elections. One should also apply visa and economic sanctions against the Belarusian authorities prior to that. She also finds it necessary to ease the visa regime for ordinary citizens, to actively accept the excluded Belarusian students, participated in the protests, in their schools, as well as to provide full support to civil society institutions and the media.


Lukashenko is Illegitimate, Germany MEP

European Parliament deputy from Germany Elisabeth Schroedter stated in the interview to "Deutsche Welle" that "The European Parliament was very angry about the current situation in Belarus." According to her, the country's president Alexander Lukashenko "threw off the table with one motion" all attempts to democratize and improve relations with the EU.

She also reported that President Alexander Lukashenko had showed his true face of the dictator by "applying the brutal violence against peaceful demonstrators and sending opposition politicians to jail." "I personally question his legitimate presidency, if he's retained power through such methods," the MEP said.

"I do not think that all measures, taken by the EU, should focus only on the figure of Lukashenko. Naturally, the visa sanctions are possible. There should be no more meetings with those, responsible for violations of the law, let along Lukashenko. He needs sending a clear message - he regained in power unfairly, he was not elected democratically," Elizabeth Schroedter said.
 
She stressed that it was a mistake to have engaged in dialogue with the president of Belarus, as it gave no results. In her opinion, it is necessary to take much stronger action to support the democratically-minded Belarusians: concentrate all efforts on the release of the Belarusian opposition, which has been "made criminals," to facilitate the visa regime for young people, students, journalists and creative people - "for anyone, interested in how democracy works."

Telegraf.By