Andrei Sannikov: “Officials hardly see their future under totalitarian regime”

An important feature of the PACE resolution is a call to officers of the law enforcement and legal bodies to understand they disregard law when organise political repressions.

Andrei Sannikov, international coordinator of the Charter’97 press center, member of the organising committee of the civil campaign “European Belarus,” said it.

“PACE resolution is a direct consequence of ongoing mockery of Kazulin, breaking up of the peaceful demonstration and repressions against independent journalists on 27 March. The Belarusian authorities seem have planned this, as they let the whole world see their nonsensical actions. As far as I know, after the regime began to release political prisoners, PACE members seriously considered the question on resuming a special guest status for Belarus on this session. But all their intentions were buried on 25 March,” one of the leaders of the “European Belarus” says.

In Sannikov’s view, the PACE resolution, based on Christos Pourgourides’s report, gives an objective picture of the situation in Belarus.

“The resolution should be taken seriously. We hear sometimes, it is just another document, condemning the situation in Belarus, that can lead to nothing. But it should be reminded that after Pourgourides’s report on enforced disappearances in Belarus and the PACE resolution, the European Union and the United States began to impose sanctions against Belarusian officials. And European countries will have to hold by this document,” the diplomat is sure.

As the international coordinator of Charter’97 notes, an important feature of the resolution is a call to officers of law enforcement and legal bodies to understand they disregard law when organise political repressions.

“Moreover, the resolution calls on both Belarusian and foreign human rights activists to record the cases of criminal persecution in political cases and make a list of those involved in such offences. It is a very important moment, because such offences have no period of limitation. Most officials hardly see their future lives in totalitarian society,” Sannikov notes.

Even Russian MPs confirmed indirectly there is no democracy in Belarus. The fact, they call to admit Belarus as a member of the Council of Europe, as it can influence the Lukashenka’s regime, means they acknowledge the existence of totalitarianism in our country.