Lazavik ready to talk to OSCE observers in Belarusian
Mikalai Lazavik, the secretary of Belarus's Central Elections Commission, has dismissed as absurd the reports that the Central Elections Commission refuses to communicate with international observers in the Belarusian language. The comments appeared in the press after Lazavik said in a statement that the Central Elections Commission demanded that international observers speak Russian.
Lazavik: "When I was talking to Mr Schmidt, the head of the OSCE Office in Minsk, I meant that it would desirable to see the OSCE have a wider use of its working languages during the observation process. We would like them to use not only English but also the Russian language".
He desribed as a negative example the situation when English translators have to be used for communication with OSCE's Russian observers in Belarus. Lazavik stressed that the choice in favor of the Russian language was justified by "technical" reasons only:
Lazavik: "I would speak Belarusian with all those OSCE observers with pleasure. But Belarusian is not an working language of the OSCE".
Lazavik: "When I was talking to Mr Schmidt, the head of the OSCE Office in Minsk, I meant that it would desirable to see the OSCE have a wider use of its working languages during the observation process. We would like them to use not only English but also the Russian language".
He desribed as a negative example the situation when English translators have to be used for communication with OSCE's Russian observers in Belarus. Lazavik stressed that the choice in favor of the Russian language was justified by "technical" reasons only:
Lazavik: "I would speak Belarusian with all those OSCE observers with pleasure. But Belarusian is not an working language of the OSCE".
