Take Belarus Back from Lukashenka

On May 30, the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita published an account of an historic meeting on the Poland-Belarus border:

Take Belarus back from Lukashenka

Politicians who met during the weekend in Bialowieza (Poland) will attempt to change the EU policy towards Belarus. They signed the Bialowieza declaration. They demand, amother other things, the international isolation of people who fight actively against democracy in Belarus.

The declaration states that the Lukashenka regime holds power illegally. It also announces aid for Belorussian society - scholarships, support of NGOs and the establishment of radio stations on the border zone of Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine.

The conference was attended by European deputies from Poland and Lithuania, parlamentarians from Latvia and Ukraine, and some representatives of the Belorussian opposition.

The participants of the conference will try to introduce motions from the Bialowieza declaration to a resolution of the European Parliament on Belarus, which may be voted on in the next session of the Parliament.

The European deputies drew attention to the fact that the states of "Old Europe" do not understand politics beyond the Eastern border, and this is the reason for the collaboration of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, which want to play the main role in the EU policy towards Eastern Europe.

”’Eurasia’ is a terrible word. We must return Belarus to Europe,” commented Vytautas Landsbergis, the first president of free Lithuania, presently a Euro MP.

Before signing the declaration, Vintsuk Vyachorka, leader of the Belarusian Popular Front, talked about this symbolic place - Bialowieza. Close by, in the village of Wiskuly, on the other side of the border, the Soviet Union was dissolved. “Not long ago, the president of the state to the east of our eastern border said that the Soviet Union's collapse was the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century. We, in our naivety, thought it was the greatest good fortune,” said Vyachorka.

Elżbieta Poludnik

(tr. by M.L., my minor editing)