Westerwelle, Sikorski, Bildt and Schwarzenberg publish "Lukashenka the Loser"
The Foreign Ministers of Sweden, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic Carl Bildt, Karel Schwarzenberg, Radek Sikorski and Guido Westerwelle have published a joint article in The New York Times – Lukashenka the Loser. The website nn.by has published its translation. There can be no business-as-usual between the European Union and Belarus’ President, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, write the European Foreign Ministers.
The Ministers stress that “Europe has not seen anything like this in years. The combination of vote- rigging and outright repression makes what Milosevic tried to do in Serbia in 2000 pale in comparison.”
Prospects of money from the West to save a deteriorating economic situation have in all probability gone up in smoke, claim the authors. “Investors will be wary of a country that has so spectacularly shown its contempt for the law,” stress the European officials.
The Ministers write that they refuse to cooperate with Lukashenka and should deepen their engagement with the democrats of Belarus. “They must not be abandoned or betrayed as their country enters what might be a new dark era,” promise the Foreign Ministers. “Europe must not be mute," conclude the European officials in their letter, reports “Nasha Niva”.
The Ministers stress that “Europe has not seen anything like this in years. The combination of vote- rigging and outright repression makes what Milosevic tried to do in Serbia in 2000 pale in comparison.”
Prospects of money from the West to save a deteriorating economic situation have in all probability gone up in smoke, claim the authors. “Investors will be wary of a country that has so spectacularly shown its contempt for the law,” stress the European officials.
The Ministers write that they refuse to cooperate with Lukashenka and should deepen their engagement with the democrats of Belarus. “They must not be abandoned or betrayed as their country enters what might be a new dark era,” promise the Foreign Ministers. “Europe must not be mute," conclude the European officials in their letter, reports “Nasha Niva”.
