European People’s Party Calls Liquidation of “Viasna” One of the most Dramatic

12.02.2004.

On 4-5 February the Congress of European People’s Party took place in Brussels. In its special resolution on Belarus it was said that “the law concerning political participants and civic non-governmental organisations has been recently amended. The new regulations oppress the said above institutions and do not correspond to the basic norms of international law. A number of non-governmental organizations had been closed (one of the most dramatic was the closure of “Viasna 96” – centre for the human-rights defence); several political parties and many non-governmental organisations were refused the registration without any sufficient reason.”

The Party also its deep concern with the process of continuous closing and harassment of political and social organisations acting according to the principles of democracy, the limitations imposed against independent mass media, arrests and closure of independent newspapers, the oppression of the system of national education and the closure of independent educational establishments, non-carrying out the market reforms declared in different agreements and in the official track of the authorities, the absence of democratically elected organs of power representing the free will of the citizens expressed through elections.”