Office for a Democratic Belarus Belarus Headlines Issue XXVI April 10 — 24, 2008 Debates in the EP on Costs of Schengen Visas for Belarusians and Ukrainians their strong desire to ernment of Belarus, he said. help the people of Bel- However, the political situa- arus gain more access tion might change in the fu- Office for a Democratic to the European Un- ture. It is also important to Belarus ion. MEPs called on have an EU representation the European Commis- office on the ground. Such an sion to do all in their office has recently been Inside this issue: power to facilitate the opened and will surely con- visa regime. More tribute to development of travel opportunities for relations between Belarus On April 21, at the begin- Belarusian citizens would and the Union. Debates in the 1 ning of the European Parlia- speed up the process of de- EP on Schengen ment’s session in Strasbourg mocratisation and create a 21/04/2008 (France), the vice-president better climate for a pro- visa costs Prepared by the ODB reduction for of the European Commis- European course of develop- Belarusians and sion, Mr Jacques Barrot, ment in Belarus, members presented a statement on urged. “The isolationism of Ukrainians cost of a Schengen visa for the Belarusian government Interview with 2 citizens of Ukraine and Bel- should not turn into the isola- arus. His intervention was tion of the Belarusian people” Jean-Louis followed by a debate. Laurent (PACE) Elisabeth Schroedter from the On Belarus, the Commis- Greens/EFA group called the PACE discusses 3 sioner said that the current Schengen policies in regard to Belarus regulations will not be re- Ukraine and Belarus inade- Hearings on 4 viewed in the near future. quate and said they under- "The opening of discussions mined the credibility of the Chernobyl in EP on a possible facilitation of EU external policy as a whole. issuing visas is not envis- Marek Siwiec, an MEP from 5 Politic and aged at this point with Bela- Poland and former chairman society news rus," said Mr Barrot. The of the Delegation on Relations commissioner reminded that with Ukraine in the EP, de- Economic news 6-7 some exceptions can be scribed the procedures for made in individual cases. Ukrainians and Belarusians to States adjoining Belarus obtain a visa as “below the 8 Culture: may also negotiate agree- level of dignity”. Beavis and ments for facilitation of bor- Butthead from der traffic. For example, In his summing-up, Commis- Belarus such negotiations have al- sioner Barrot agreed that it is ready started between Bela- necessary to provide Belaru- We on the Web rus and Poland, Mr Barrot sians and Ukrainians with bet- 9 www.democraticbelarus.eu Belarus’ said. ter possibilities to visit the EU. Creative The climate for negotiations Opposition The majority of the parlia- on visa regime is more favour- mentarians who spoke dur- able in Ukraine, while it is ing the debate expressed difficult to speak to the gov- ISSUE XXVI BELARUS HEADLINES PAGE 2 Jean-Louis Laurent: Once the Belarusian government commits itself to openness and starts the process of democratization, negotiations can begin immediately (CPT) should be arranged. Do itself part of the BSU). We shall try to you think this would be possi- make sure the project is not a static col- ble? lection of books and other printed materi- als, but a dynamic programme describing J-L.L.: The mandate of the our main achievements and campaigns. Commissioner is limited to Free access for everyone was one of our members of the organization, key conditions when carrying out negotia- and Belarus is not part of it. tions with the state authorities. However, when there is the will to act, one can find ways. ODB: When presenting his report on The question is whether such a Abuse of Criminal Law in Belarus, Mr visit would be accepted by the Pourgourides pleaded to the Russian gov- Interview with Jean-Louis Laurent government of Belarus. In order to in- ernment to stop supporting the regime of spect Belarusian prisons, one has to Lukashenka. Would you add your signa- Director General have access to them. In addition, we ture to such an appeal? have to act carefully and make sure Directorate General of Democracy such a trip would not be misused by the J-L.L.: All efforts tend to show long-term and Political Affairs government and the state media. benefit. Some members of the Assembly have more influence than others on vari- Parliamentary Assembly of the ODB: As it happened to Mr van der ous issues. Maybe this is the case. Council of Europe (PACE) Linden when he visited Minsk in Janu- ODB: Members of the Russian delegation ODB: Mr. Laurent, currently there ary 2007? voiced a suggestion to restore immedi- are two approaches towards Belarus J-L.L.: The former PACE President ately the observer status of Belarus at in the Assembly, that of Mr. Pour- was himself critical of how the purpose PACE, without demanding compliance gourides, known for his tough posi- of his journey and his messages were with any conditions. Is the Belarusian tion regarding the current situation of presented to the public by the Belaru- government lobbying for the same objec- human rights in Belarus, and that of sian state media. To my mind, his visit tive? Mr. Rigoni, who calls for more con- was a courageous act, even if he did not tacts with the government of Bela- achieve any real impact- at least in the J-L.L.: Yes. In place of the fulfilment of rus. Which strategy do you favour? short term. Experience shows how dif- conditions for a dialogue with us they suggest activities in areas of culture and J-L.L.: I am not sure there are two ficult it is to come to any agreement with your government. For example, we education, but never mention human positions. The rapporteurs have dif- rights and democracy. Culture and educa- ferent mandates within PACE. While had to cancel a conference in Bratislava this spring because the conditions im- tion are very important, but they are not at the position of Mr Pourgourides is the centre of the Council’s activities. well-known, Mr Rigoni’s draft report posed by the Belarusian side were un- acceptable. While conducting a dia- Once the Belarusian government commits has not been presented yet, so it is itself to openness and starts the process of too early to draw any conclusions. I logue, one has to assess the achieve- democratization, negotiations can begin personally do not see any fundamen- ments and risks, and then decide if it is immediately. tal contradictions in their assess- worth acting. In any case, we will con- ments of the current state of affairs, tinue our support for civil society in ODB: Is the Assembly planning any ac- it is rather that they have different Belarus. Our programmes are open and tivities in connection with the parliamen- approaches in how to deal with the serve the purpose of our organization: tary elections in Belarus due to take place situation while the objective is the to promote democracy, human rights this autumn? same. The Council of Europe is not and the rule of law. complete without Belarus. The ques- J-L.L.: It would be a very clever move by ODB: Are you excited about the open- tion is how to extend the work of the the officials of Belarus to issue an invita- ing of the info-point in Minsk? Can the organization to the people of your tion for an observer mission. Such action agreement to implement this project be country. would show their attempt to be more considered as success? transparent and open. In the end, what is ODB: The Commissioner for Human J-L.L.: Excited would be an exaggera- the most important for us that the country Rights, Mr Hammarberg, said during tion. I hope we will be able to provide should be ruled by fairly elected officials the session debate that not enough is more objective information about the and the political leaders work for the being done about Belarus. Members Council of Europe both to the people of good of the people. of the Dutch delegation from the Belarus and the government. However, liberal group voiced their concern Finally, I’d like to reiterate that it is the there are no illusions on our side. The about the grave situation in Belaru- Belarus government’s turn to act. The ball info-point will be a very limited institu- sian prisons and suggested to The is in their court. tion, based at the faculty of journalism Commissioner that a visit by the of the Belarus State University (but not Committee on Prevention of Torture By ODB PAGE 3 BELARUS HEADLINES ISSUE XXVI PACE Discusses Belarus The situation in Christos Pourgourides, vice-chairman of the Committee on Belarus attracted Legal Affairs and Human Rights (Cyprus), well-known in considerable atten- Belarus as author of the report on disappeared persons and for tion at the session his tough stance regarding dialogue between Europe and the of the Council of Belarusian government presented an analysis of abuses of Europe Parliamen- the criminal justice system in Belarus. He proposed a resolu- tary Assembly tion that was approved by the majority of the Council’s mem- (PACE) in Stras- bers: this urged the Belarusian authorities to abolish the arti- bourg last week. cle in the Criminal Code that criminalizes activities on behalf of an unregistered organization. Commenting on a Dutch delegate’s question as to what approach should be used towards Belarus and those Bela- During the international conference of non-governmental rusian citizens who face political repressions, German organisations Belarusian civil society activists had the chance Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed, on behalf of her to speak about the repressions their organisations suffer in party (the Christian Democratic Union), full support for Belarus and the new amendments to the Belarusian legislation the Belarusian democratic opposition and political prison- on NGOs.