BRATISLAVA, July 8, (WEBNOVINY) — The regime will not survive and freedom will prevail also in Belarus, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic Mikulas Dzurinda on Friday after meeting with young civil society activists from Belarus. They arrived in Slovakia at the invitation of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Pontis Foundation in the framework of Slovak’s official development aid. Dzurinda met with an independent analyst and political scientist Pavel Usov, editor of the online magazine 34mag.net Irina Vidanava, and manager of the Belarus Public Policy Foundation Anastasia Klimovicova.
The foreign minister is convinced that the courage of the people in Belarus is growing. „The day will come when the people will prevail and the country will change,“ he said. Slovakia will have to consider further steps, but according to Dzurinda, Belarus is on the right track. Belarusian activists have appreciated Slovakia’s approach. It was able to overthrow the communist regime and is now helping Belarus on the way to democracy by sharing its experience. Belarusian activists, however, told Dzurinda they do not feel a strong enough signal from Europe that Belarus has a chance to succeed. „We must let the people of Belarus know more clearly, distinctly, and loudly that we are waiting for them in the European Union. We clearly perceive Belarus as a European country,“ he said.
Dzurinda considered as the most essential from this meeting that you could test whether we should be consistent in pressure on the regime of Alexander Lukashenko or not. „Yesterday I wrote a letter to the Minister of Finance and Governor of the National Bank of Slovakia that we should reconsider loans of the International Monetary Fund [to Belarus – SITA note],“ he said, referring to the fact that according to Belarusian activists, these loans will only be misused. According to the minister, Slovakia must do much more on visa liberalization for targeted groups of people so that they can travel and be able to become convinced that Europe counts on a democratic Belarus. „Our young friends from Belarus know that there is the Eastern Partnership, that we are preparing projects within the Visegrad Fund, and also that countries such as Slovakia offer under official development aid specific projects how to help the democratic opposition, NGOs and journalists,“ he said. In his view, Slovakia must make it clear to the Lukashenko regime that this type of policy, when people are jailed just because they want freedom and want to freely express their opinions, is unacceptable for Slovakia. „We are dealing very intensively with ways to continue helping the necessary development in Belarus,“ said Dzurinda.
Among those to accept an invitation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was the leader of the Belarusian Youth Movement Molody Front Anastasia Palazanka (20), who was arrested in December following anti-government demonstrations. However, she could not come to Slovakia, because she was prohibited to leave Belarus.
SITA