Maltese support for Belarus

I refer to the letter by John Bonello, international secretary of the Nationalist Party, in reply to the article The Plight Of Belarus, by MEP Joseph Muscat.

Both Mr Muscat and Mr Bonello are absolutely correct in saying that the situation in the country is getting worse - the rapidly declining human rights record in Belarus can be called "the Lukashenka hysteria before presidential election". Actually, elections as such have not existed in our country for a long time now but, in light of the recent "colour revolutions" in the region, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka is trying to eliminate by all means the repetition of such a scenario in Belarus.

On the other hand, I absolutely disagree with Mr Bonello's labelling the Belarusian government as "leftist". Belarus is a country owned by one person. Like every dictator, Mr Lukashenka has his own ideology.

I also happen to know Paval Sevyarynets, a person mentioned by Mr Bonello, personally. His organisation is a member of the European Coalition and a very close ally of the Belarusian Social-Democratic Party (Narodnaya Hramada), on whose behalf I am writing. He has been recently convicted - together with our party chairman Mikola Statkevich, to three years of corrective labour. They were both charged with organising peaceful demonstrations after the rigged parliamentary "elections" in October 2004. I admire Mr Sevyarynets, like many other compatriots of mine, who did not give up after so many years of struggle and still continues the fight for a democratic country. I also would like to mention here that it is not only the centre-right parties all around the world who support the Belarusian democratic opposition. Social-democrat parties are playing a very important role. Among them is the Malta Labour Party. Mr Muscat, who is vice-president of the European Parliament's delegation on relations with Belarus, has done an amazing amount of work for us by making strong statements on Belarus during the Parliament sessions, drafting resolutions on the political situation in the country, initiating statements on detainment and harassment of the opposition members (including a statement on Mr Sevyarynets and Mr Statkevich). He also has been always available for meetings with the Belarusian civil society members and political parties representatives.

Another person working for years on Belarus within the European Parliament is a Dutch MEP, vice-chairman of the Socialists group, Jan Marinus Wiersma, who used to chair the delegation on relations with Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova and as a result of his active support for the Belarusian opposition became a persona non grata.

In conclusion, I must say I am very happy that people in Malta know about the sad case of Belarus and express not only their willingness to help but also strengthen their words with concrete actions. Thank you.