European Parliament resolution on Belarus
Date: 2005-09-29
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: Belarus, human rights, political situation, political system, political violence, politics

21.9.2006

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Thursday, 29 September 2005

20. Regrets that no agreement was reached on the reform of the UN Security Council, but welcomes the
fact that the General Assembly will have to report on the Security Council by the end of 2005 on the basis
of new proposals, which should take into account the aims of ensuring better representation in and trans-
parency and effectiveness of the Security Council; reiterates its commitment to the prospect of a common
European seat on the Security Council as soon as the political, constitutional and legal conditions for such
a seat are met;

Supports and welcomes the new commitment by the UN on the Democracy Fund as an important
21.
tool for the world-wide promotion of democracy, and calls on the Commission and the Member States
fully to support it both politically and financially; reaffirms its belief that the UN itself needs to enhance
considerably democracy within its structures, and therefore underlines its call for a core group of democra-
cies within the UN General Assembly;

22. Restates its opinion that the diplomatic representation of the EU to the UN is of the utmost impor-
tance for improving relations between the two organisations and for the influence of the EU on the inter-
national stage; therefore encourages the Council and the Commission actively to pursue the merging of
their liaison offices and delegations into a common external EU delegation in each of the UN headquarters
in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi;

23. Welcomes the call for strengthened cooperation between the United Nations and national and
regional parliaments, which constitutes a recognition of the specific role of parliaments in the development
and democratisation process;

24. Welcomes the renewed commitment on granting 100 % debt relief to 18 of the poorest and most
heavily indebted countries made at the meeting of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and
African Development Bank which followed the above-mentioned World Summit;

25.
Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission, the govern-
ments and parliaments of the Member States, the UN Secretary-General, the President and member states
of the UN Security Council, the President of the 60th General Assembly and the President of the UN
Economic and Social Council.

P6_TA(2005)0363

Belarus

The European Parliament,

European Parliament resolution on Belarus

— having regard to its previous resolutions on the situation in Belarus,

— having regard, in particular to its resolution of 10 March 2005 on Belarus (1) and its resolution of 7 July

2005 on the political situation and the independence of the media in Belarus (2),

— having regard to its Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought, which was awarded to the Belarussian

Association of Journalists in December 2004,

— having regard to the United Nations resolution of 12 April 2005 on the human rights situation in

Belarus,

— having regard, in particular, to the ‘EU action plan for promoting democracy in Belarus’ adopted by the

European Parliament's Delegation for relations with Belarus on 23 February 2005,

— having regard to the Communication from the Commission of 12 May 2004 on the European Neigh-

bourhood Policy (COM(2004)0373),

(1) Texts Adopted, P6_TA(2005)0080.
(2) Texts Adopted, P6_TA(2005)0295.

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— having regard to the resolutions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the situa-
tion in Belarus and, in particular, to its resolution of 28 April 2004 on persecution of the press in the
Republic of Belarus,

— having regard to the EU sanctions adopted on 2 July 2004 against Belarussian officials following the

disappearance of 3 Belarussian opposition leaders and one journalist,

— having regard to the statements by the EU Presidency on Belarus issued on 2 August 2005, 12 August

2005 and 30 August 2005,

— having regard to the decision by the Commission to grant a 138 000 Euro contract to Deutsche Welle
Radio for independent broadcasting via radio and Internet to Belarus for one year from 1 November
2005,

— having regard to Rule 103(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas, instead of improving, the situation in Belarus has further deteriorated, which has led to a
situation where human rights are blatantly violated, the Lower House is deprived of its legislative
rights, and economic life is controlled by the President; whereas such violations include imprisonment
of members of the democratic opposition and other forms of repression used against them,

B. whereas over the past few years several political parties, 22 independent newspapers, more than 50
pro-democracy NGOs of different levels and different political persuasions and several educational
establishments have been closed down for ‘technical’ reasons, but whereas it is clear that in every case
these organisations were being punished for criticising the President and his policies,

C. whereas Viktar Halavanau, Justice Minister of Belarus, has issued a decree on obligatory registration of
blocs of political parties, trade unions, coalitions, civil initiatives and movements, with the aim of
preventing the unification of political forces that would support a challenger to Aleksandr Lukashenko
in next year's presidential election,

D. whereas on 13 September 2005 Belarus President Lukashenko issued a decree granting himself the
right to pardon property-related crimes in yet another move to further monopolise all power in the
country, including judicial authority,

E. whereas in April 2005 the UN Commission on Human Rights criticised Belarus on account of persis-
tent reports of harassment and closure of NGOs, national minority organisations, independent media
outlets, opposition political parties, independent trade unions and religious organisations, and harass-
ment of individuals engaged in democratic activities, including in the independent media,

F. whereas the closure of independent universities in Belarus has led to the inauguration of the European

Humanities University for Belarussian students in exile in Vilnius,

G. whereas politically motivated arrests and trials of activists belonging to the democratic movement and
of independent journalists, and deportations of foreign citizens, are continually taking place in Belarus,

H. whereas no progress has been made in the unsolved cases of a number of disappeared persons,

I. whereas on 12 May 2005 the leadership of the Union of Poles in Belarus were declared illegitimate by
the Belarussian Ministry of Justice, a printing plant under instructions from the government refused to
print the Polish weekly ‘Glos znad Niemna’ and fake issues were printed under the umbrella of the
government,

J. whereas on 27 August 2005 the Lukashenko regime called a board meeting of the Union of Poles in
Belarus to force the resignation of the democratic, and legally elected, leadership in order to replace
them with a board compliant with the regime's wishes,

K. whereas the situation of other minorities, including the Roma and religious minorities, has been stea-

dily deteriorating: Protestant churches have been closed and the Evangelical Church banned,

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L. whereas exercise of the right to freedom of information is thwarted, whereas all television programmes,
both national and regional, are in government hands, and whereas all Internet connections are routed
through a State-run corporation which has blocked numerous accounts and websites,

Thursday, 29 September 2005

M. whereas all cable operators are persecuted for transmitting the foreign channels not approved by the
Belarussian Government; whereas on this basis Belarussian cable TV operators have been banned from
broadcasting all Ukrainian channels as well as the Polish channel Polonia,

N. whereas all registration of new newspapers has been stopped by the State authorities, trials of newspa-
pers and journalists take place every day and many existing newspapers have received heavy fines
which makes it impossible for them to continue publishing,

O. whereas President Lukashenko has made it almost impossible for the international network of NGOs in
Europe and Belarus to help children suffering from the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster to
travel to various countries to convalesce,

P. whereas Poland temporarily recalled its ambassador from Minsk after a series of expulsions of diplo-
mats, rejecting President Lukashenko's accusations that Poland was meddling in his country's affairs,

Q. whereas at the United Nations Summit in New York on 15 September 2005 President Lukashenko
accused UN human rights bodies of allowing themselves to be misused to control other countries,

R. whereas the Council approach towards Belarus has been lacking decisiveness and resolve,

1.
Strongly condemns the Belarus regime's indiscriminate attacks on the media, minority and human
rights activists, members of the opposition, religious leaders, and any person who attempts freely to voice
criticism of the President and the regime, as evidenced by arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment of detainees, disap-
pearances, politically motivated persecution and other acts of repression that flout the basic principles of
democracy and the rule of law;

2. Condemns the Belarus regime's amendment to Decree 460 on the regulations for accepting foreign
aid, dated 17 August 2005, which extends the list of objectives for which external aid cannot be accepted:
notes that it is now forbidden to accept and use international aid for ‘unconstitutional purposes’, to over-
throw authorities, interfere with the internal affairs of Belarus, prepare elections or referenda, organise
meetings, rallies, pickets or strikes, or prepare and distribute propaganda material, and that it is impossible
to organise conferences, seminars and meetings of any kind using aid funds from abroad;

3. Condemns the regime's decision of 22 August 2005 to ban the Reformed Evangelical Church, which
had been present in Belarus for more than 400 years and which was outlawed because the community had
no legal address, nor could it have registered one, because the authorities had previously evicted it from all
of its prayer houses, in violation of the Belarussian law on freedom of belief;

4. Condemns the government's action against the Union of Poles in Belarus (ZPB) as a violation of the
basic principles of the Council of Europe ‘Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities’
of 1995 and as an attempt to curb the largest NGO and one of the few not controlled by the government;
recalls that respect for minority rights also includes freedom of association and the recognition of the
elected statutory bodies of that organisation; deplores the government's attempt to take control of ‘Glos
znad Niemna’;

5. Condemns the continuous persecution of activists belonging to the Polish minority who wish to
preserve the independence of their association; observes that the most active are harassed by repeated
summonses to the prosecutor's office and the police, that Angelika Borys, the leader of ZPB, has been inter-
rogated more than 50 times in recent weeks and that Tadeusz Gawin, a founder member and current vice-
president of ZPB, has been sentenced to 30 days' imprisonment;

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6. Condemns the sentencing of ZPB activists Jozef Parzecki, Wieslaw Kiewlak, Andrzej Pisalnik and
Andrzej Poczobut to up to two years' imprisonment on false criminal charges;

7. Condemns the Belarus regime's complete marginalisation of the Roma minority in Belarus, whose
basic civic rights have been curtailed, and strongly condemns hate speech against the Roma population in
the official media;

8. Condemns the Belarus authorities for not granting entry visas to a delegation of Members of the Euro-
pean Parliament who went on a fact-finding mission on 8 August 2005;

9. Calls on the Council and Commission to create a programme of scholarships, visits and placements
for NGOs and human rights and minority activists;

10. Considers that, should the Belarussian authorities fail to improve the situation regarding freedom of
speech, assembly and religion, and thereby allow it to deteriorate further, the Commission, the Council and
Parliament should initiate the procedure to expand the visa-ban list to include representatives of Belarussian
authorities involved in persecution; considers that the sanctions against President Lukashenko's regime
should also include the freezing of assets of Belarussian authorities abroad;

Emphasises once again that the further development of EU relations with Belarus will also continue
11.
to depend on the progress made towards democratisation and reform in the country and access for Belar-
ussians to objective, free and transparent media, as well as respect for minority and religious rights and
freedoms;

12. Welcomes the fact that the Commission has launched further support for independent broadcasting
in Belarus; stresses the importance of offering high quality and independent information to the Belarus
public; calls again on the Council and Commission to act on their responsibility stemming from the Neigh-
bourhood Strategy to support Belarussian civil society and make provision for a financial programme
relating to the objectives of the European Neighbourhood Policy, adapting the support measures to the
case of Belarus; urges the Council and Commission to grant as soon as possible even greater assistance to
the free media and independent NGOs in Belarus and to extend broadcasting initiatives;

13. Calls on the Commission to ensure that no ‘pseudo-NGOs’, which are created by the Belarus authori-
ties in order to obtain funds from foreign donors, receive any EU funding or any contributions from the
EU budget;

14. Calls on the Commission and the Council to support the democratically elected board of ZPB, as
well as the boards of other democratically elected NGOs which are also subject to repression by the Luka-
shenko regime;

15. Calls for the creation of an ad hoc high-level delegation to be sent on a fact-finding mission to
Belarus and to report its findings to Parliament;

16.
Strongly supports the announcement by the President of the Commission of the posting of a special
diplomat to Belarus to monitor the human rights situation, and calls on the Commission to accelerate the
opening of a permanent representation of the European Union in Minsk, so as to be able to better distri-
bute information, coordinate projects and monitor the situation in Belarus;

17. Calls on the Council and the Commission to raise the issue of Belarus with the Russian authorities
with a view to defining a common responsibility for bringing about concrete democratic changes in that
country;

18. Appeals to all EU Member States to introduce free visas for Belarussian citizens;

19. Calls on European political parties and the political groups in the European Parliament to increase
their contacts with, and political support for, the Belarussian opposition;

20.
Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Parliaments and
Governments of the Member States and the Parliamentary Assemblies of the OSCE and the Council of
Europe.