Civil society of Belarus commented on its attitude towards the dialogue with the authorities

National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF) has been prepared for the possibility of a future dialogue and negotiations with the government, but they state the impossibility of the process at present.

The announcement has been made in Minsk at the meeting of the Steering Committee of National Platform of the EaP CSF. The participants focused their attention on the fact that the initiative of the dialogue itself originally comes not from the authorities, but from Belarusian civil society. It has been actively discussed at the beginning of the year and has found broad support in the European Commission and other EU bodies. However, if the initiative had been completely ignored by the authorities, then some of the media are currently pretending that Alexander Lukashenko has voiced the possibility of negotiations not as a reaction to the proposal of civil society, but as his own idea.  

The Steering Committee of National Platform of the EaP CSF has noted that civil society and democratic opposition have responded to the statement of A. Lukashenko in a very effective and proper way, denoting their theoretical willingness to the dialogue and stating the impossibility of the dialogue at present, until there are political prisoners in the country. Quick release of all the prisoners without exception can not be the subject of a dialogue or a round table, but is the essential condition not to be discussed for the beginning of such a dialogue and further negotiations.

The participants have also expressed confidence that National Platform of the EaP CSF is sufficiently prepared for a possible future dialogue and negotiations as many points at issue have been discussed and agreed upon in the process of discussions on the "Strategy 2012", worked out by the Consortium "EUROBELARUS". But civil society is still waiting for reciprocal steps from the government. As a first step towards the real dialogue there must be a formal proposal of dialogue with civil society in Belarus.

"Voiced casually and in a very different context, these words are not an official proposal. No proposal’s been done from the government neither to civil society nor to the political opposition. Therefore, the president’s remarks can be considered only as a comment, but there can not be any answer to them," one of the participants of the meeting, a philosopher Uladzimir Matskevich noted.

At the same time, representatives of Belarusian civil society have recognized that the National Platform is interested in urgent creation of conditions for the dialogue as the mission of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum can not be realized without such a dialogue and interaction between the state and society.

“While proposing the dialogue to the authorities and preparing for a future round table with the government, the National Platform acts in full compliance with international agreements in the Eastern Partnership framework. But the Belarusian government has been ignoring till today its obligations in the Eastern Partnership framework, being mostly an obstacle in the National Platform and Civil Society Forum work (including the repressions of the delegates of the Forum), than working with the public," summed up the meeting members.