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Malady Front calls on EU to punish Lukashenka regime

An opposition youth group called Malady Front has appealed to the foreign ministers of the European Union member countries to punish the Lukashenka regime with tough sanctions and not to lift them until the regimes fulfills all demands of the international community and the country’s pro-democratic supporters.

The ministers are expected to adopt sanctions against Alyaksandr Lukashenka and other Belarusian officials at a meeting in Brussels on Monday afternoon.

In the appeal, Malady Front says that the release of several opposition figures from the KGB detention center last week was just a show intended to outsmart the EU.

A total of seven people, including former presidential candidate Uladzimir Nyaklyayew and prominent journalist Iryna Khalip, the wife of another ex-candidate, Andrey Sannikaw, were let out of the KGB jail last week. Mr. Nyaklyayew and Ms. Khalip were placed under house arrest.

The seven are among the 37 persons who have been charged with organizing mass riots in connection with the December 19 post-election demonstration in Minsk. They all may face a prison term of up to 15 years.

Malady Front urges the EU to punish “criminals and executioners of Belarusian people” guilty of the ongoing post-election crackdown.

“A political bargaining has already begun,” the group says. “It is high time to adopt tough sanctions conditioned on Minsk`s compliance with demands of the international and Belarusian pro-democratic community. Otherwise, Europe will be again fooled. As a loser, it will have to `buy out` Nyaklyayew, Khalip, Radzina and Vaznyak who will be put back into the detention center, as well as dozens of other people facing up to 15 years in prison.”

“The actions by the Belarusian leader who thinks that he can escape unpunished for the most serious crimes is an insult to Europe and the rest of the civilized world,” says Malady Front. “The steps made for show must not blind you and an illusion of democracy must not be taken as a substitute for real liberalization. During the [most recent presidential] elections, we saw this illusion dashed, too.”

“Europe should not repeat its previous mistakes regarding the dictator,” Malady Front warns. “As practical experience shows, a dictatorship understands only the language of sanctions.” //BelaPAN