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Britain continues to demand release of political prisoners in Belarus, Lyabedzka says

The United Kingdom continues to demand the release of the political prisoners in Belarus, Anatol Lyabedzka, chairman of the United Civic Party, who stayed in the country between September 30 and October 2 at the invitation of the ruling Conservative Party, told BelaPAN.

"I had more than 20 meetings with members of the House of Commons and the British government," Mr. Lyabedzka said. "Britain is a country that sets political trends in Europe. It is important for us to have such political heavyweights on our side."

According to Mr. Lyabedzka, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and David Lidington, minister of state for Europe at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, agree that Europe should demand for the release and exoneration of the political prisoners as well and free and fair elections in Belarus. "Lidington described this strategy as reasonable and expressed hope that all Belarusian opposition forces would embrace it," Mr. Lyabedzka said. "This means that we have some homework."

As for Mr. Hague, he stressed that it was necessary to tackle the root causes of the problem of politically motivated imprisonment in Belarus, he said.

According to Mr. Lyabedzka, he, former presidential candidate Andrey Sannikaw, and Vital Rymashewski, co-chairman of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party, have petitioned the leaders of Britain and the United States to prevent the establishment of a Russian airbase in Belarus.

Mr. Lyabedzka asked Mr. Lidington to pass the petition to Prime Minister David Cameron. A petition for US President Barack Obama was submitted through the UN Department of State. "In our opinion, Russia's plans to establish a military base in Belarus run counter to not only the Belarusian constitution but also the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, which was signed by Britain," he said.

According to Mr. Lyabedzka, while meeting with British MPs, he spoke out against the possible dissolution of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's Ad Hoc Working Group on Belarus. "Belarusian, Kazakh and Russian lawmakers are working behind the scenes to dissolve this group," he said. "However, I stressed that that would be a mistake. The British MPs agree with me. They say that the group was set up because there were some problems. The problems haven't been solved, so the group should continue to exist."

Mr. Lyabedzka said that an Eastern Partnership summit to be held in Vilnius in November 2013 was also under discussion during his visit to Britain. The Europeans currently consider who should be invited to the summit to represent the Belarusian government, he said.