Translated material
Brotherly support
Russia wants to return Belarus to PACE and investigate the crimes of the Albanians
Russia will raise the issue of returning Belarus to special guest status at the regular spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which opened yesterday. This was stated by the head of the Russian delegation to PACE Konstantin Kosachev. According to him, “more and more deputies are leaning toward the position that Russia has always defended,” opposing the isolation of Belarus.Minsk welcomes Moscow's initiative, but does not make predictions about the PACE decision. “We are grateful to our Russian partners who share our approaches. There is no reason why PACE cannot return to discussing the issue of returning Belarus to special invitee status,” Andrei Popov, press secretary of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Vremya Novostey.
For Belarus, the return of its lost status is a matter of political image. Moreover, in past years, President Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly stated that Belarus would like to join the Council of Europe as a full member. “But it doesn’t depend on us,” he admitted. Belarus is the only country that is not a member of the Council of Europe, this prestigious organization with 47 members.
Discussion of the topic of Belarus can cause heated debate. After all, many European parliamentarians consider this country “unworthy” of membership in the Council of Europe due to problems with human rights. Today the Assembly intends to discuss a report on abuses in the criminal justice system in Belarus. The document was prepared by the rapporteur of the PACE Committee on Legal Issues and Human Rights, Cypriot Christos Pourgourides, who previously criticized not only Minsk, but also Moscow. Kosachev suggested that “this will be a harshly critical report.”
The bulk of the discussion is yet to come. A large document on the situation in Belarus will be prepared for the June or October session of PACE, which will determine the position of the Council of Europe. Belarus was deprived of its special invitee status in PACE in 1997, that is, shortly after the 1996 referendum in Minsk, which expanded the powers of President Alexander Lukashenko at the expense of the powers of parliament.
The leader of the United Civil Party, Anatoly Lebedko, who has repeatedly represented Belarus at PACE meetings both as a deputy of the Supreme Council and as a representative of the opposition, expressed doubt that the special invitee status will be restored soon: “The likelihood of its restoration is small, since the reasons that led to to make this decision."
The opposition considers it premature to consider a large report on Belarus. Mr. Lebedko noted that PACE had better decide on its position regarding Minsk after the parliamentary elections on September 28: “The election campaign will show whether there is progress in Belarus. If the elections are held in accordance with democratic standards, then the issue of Belarus can be considered.”
There are other pressing issues on the agenda of the current session. Thus, the head of PACE, Luis Maria de Puig, spoke a lot yesterday about the Kosovo problem. He said that those responsible for the crimes described in the book by the former chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal, Carla Del Ponte, “must be brought to justice.” This book talks about the involvement of the current Albanian leaders of Kosovo in the illegal trade in human organs of murdered Serbs. The Russian delegation to PACE has already collected the required number of signatures to demand an independent investigation into these facts.