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Declaration of the Belarusian Opposition On Eastern PartnershipWe welcome the idea of the Eastern Partnership and express our appreciation to the EU for including Belarus in this programme.We understand the importance of the general issues prompting the EU to propose a new approach in dealing with Lukashenka’s anti-democratic regime, which is intentionally destroying Belarusian civil society. Nevertheless, we believe that securing the rights of civil society and of the individual should be a condition for relations with the authoritarian regime of Aliaksandr Lukashenka and should be stressed in the Partnership’s protocols. Participation of civil society in the Eastern Partnership will guarantee positive changes; it will create the possibility of a positive choice for replacing the existing regime. Without this participation, the Partnership will not achieve positive results and will be used by the anti-democratic regime to justify its own destructive activities. We would like to draw attention to the anti-culture character of Lukashenka’s regime. Along with ruining civil society and violating human rights, this regime is also methodically destroying Belarusian culture, education and creativity, national historical knowledge. It has made universal Russification the mainstay of its anti-culture policies. In the contemporary world, culture is becoming one of the main attributes of sovereignty. Russification and the destruction of culture increase the negative influence of Russian pro-imperial political circles in Belarus. In our opinion, one of the priorities of the Eastern Partnership’s activities should be its assistance in saving Belarusian culture from systematic destruction by an anti-Belarusian regime. We propose adding an item to EU’s demands to the Belarusian regime. It should deal with securing free development of Belarusian culture, education and creativity. We believe that, in the realm of economic cooperation, priorities should be assigned to energy management and diversification of supplies of energy resources; namely, to investments in projects and technology dealing with the transportation of energy resources (oil, gas, and electricity). We also consider it necessary to abolish all barriers by the regime to people’s access to information and cultural-education projects. Simplification of the visa regime and reduction of visa fees for citizens of the Republic of Belarus would favour the mutual exchange of ideas and understanding of the democratic way of life. We would like to point the attention of EU politicians to signals concerning the development of a mutual strategy by Lukashenka and his eastern allies regarding the Eastern Partnership. In our view, if this factor is underestimated and all forces in the Republic of Belarus (including those in emigré community) are not included in the Eastern Partnership programme, prospects for the Partnership in Belarus might not develop or may just stop (in the worst case) at the level of factual recognition and legitimisation of the anti-democratic regime. Feeling responsible for our people (Belarusians), we are interested in the viability of the partnership programme. We hope that our position will be heard and supported by the initiators and all participants of the Eastern Partnership. 6th of May 2009, Prague Ivonka Survilla, President of the BNR Rada, and former presidential candidates: Zianon Pazniak, Stanislau Shushkevich and Aliaksandr Kazulin. Editor’s Note In an interview with a Radio Liberty reporter, Aliaksandr Milinkevich explained why he has not signed the joint declaration by Ivonka Survilla, Stanislau Shushkevich, Zianon Pazniak, and Aliaksandr Kazulin: I basically supported the text of the declaration. However, such declarations should be very articulate and properly verified; the text included some statements that, in my view, are not supported by facts.. For example, there is the statement implying that authorities of Belarus and Russia have a plan for destroying the Eastern Partnership. This article appeared in Belarusian Review, Vol. 21, No. 2 --------------------------------------------- Copyright 2009 Belarusian Review All rights reserved. belarusianreview@hotmailcom
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