MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION

13.2.2006

to wind up the debate on statements by the Council and Commission
pursuant to Rule 103(2) of the Rules of Procedure
by Jan Marinus Wiersma, Marek Maciej Siwiec and Joseph Muscat
on behalf of the PSE Group
on Belarus in the run-up to the presidential elections on 19 March

B6‑0113/2006

European Parliament resolution on Belarus in the run-up to the presidential elections on 19 March

The European Parliament,

–

having regard to its previous resolutions on the situation in Belarus, in particular its

resolution of 10 March 2005 on Belarus, its resolution of 7 July 2005 and its resolution of 26 September 2005 on the political situation and independence of the media in Belarus,

–   having regard to the award of its Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to the Belarusian Association of Journalists in December 2004,

–

having regard to the United Nations resolution of 12 April 2005 on the human rights

situation in Belarus,

–  having regard to the resolutions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the situation in Belarus and, in particular, its resolution of 26 January 2006 on the situation in Belarus on the eve of the presidential election,

–  having regard to the conclusions on Belarus issued by the Council following its meeting of 30 January 2006 and to the declaration by the European Union and the United States of 3 February 2006 on their relations with Belarus,

–  having regard to the reports by the International Observer Mission on the parliamentary elections and the constitutional referendum which took place in Belarus on 17 October 2004,

–  having regard to the activities and reports on Belarus of the Parliamentary Troika of the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly,

–  having regard to Rule 103(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.  whereas the presidential elections in Belarus are scheduled to take place on 19 March 2006,

B.  whereas the regime of President Lukashenko has in the run-up to these presidential elections taken a series of measures to prevent any expression of political dissent and to obstruct the activities of democratic forces in the country,

C.  whereas a number of leading opposition figures have been detained following trials based on questionable charges, thus confirming the abuse of the justice system in Belarus for political purposes and the lack of independence of the judiciary in the country,

D.  whereas the situation as regards the independence of the media and freedom of expression in Belarus has further deteriorated, as a result of which the people of Belarus cannot receive the information they need to freely form political opinions and to make a democratic choice in the forthcoming elections,

E.  whereas several international institutions of which Belarus is a fully accepted member, including the OSCE's ODIHR and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, have received an invitation to observe the presidential election, but whereas the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe - unlike in the case of the presidential elections of 2001 - have not received such an invitation and have even been informed that no such invitation to observe the elections will be issued,

F.  whereas the Belarus Ministry of Justice has repeatedly issued warnings threatening to close down parties in Belarus which fail to abide by the new law on political parties, despite the fact that most party cells had already lost their legal addresses and were consequently deprived of their registration with local justice directorates,

G.  whereas President Lukashenko has banned any protests concerning the country's forthcoming presidential elections and has threatened harsh government retaliation, whilst accusing the West of supplying money to the candidates standing against him for post-election street riots,

H.  whereas it must be considered as a sign of political maturity that the United Democratic Forces of Belarus have succeeded in nominating one single candidate for the presidential elections,

I.  whereas on 26 January 2006 the European Commission announced a new initiative with a view to providing Belarusian citizens with access to free and independent information and with radio and television programmes, half in Russian and half in Belarusian, and support for the Belarusian written press and for the training of journalists, and whereas the partners in the consortium will be European Radio for Belarus (Poland), Radio Baltic Wave (Lithuania), Belarus (journalists, civil society and NGOs) and RTVi (Russian radio working from Germany),

1.  Strongly condemns the Belarus regime's ongoing and increasing attacks on the media, journalists, members of the opposition, human rights activists and any person who attempts freely to voice criticism of the President and the regime, as manifested through arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment of detainees, disappearances, politically motivated persecution and other acts of repression which flout the basic principles of democracy and the rule of law;

2.  Calls on the President and the Government of Belarus to create the conditions required for free and democratic presidential elections;

3.  Stresses that the following criteria must be fulfilled if the presidential elections are to be recognised as free and democratic:

-	full transparency of the electoral process in all its aspects, in particular as regards the process of registering candidates, the composition of the electoral commissions and the counting of votes;

-	equal conditions for all candidates, in particular as regards access to the mass media, especially electronic media, and other possibilities for organising their election campaign;

-	all State and government bodies to refrain completely from any act that might be considered as harassment of candidates, their relatives or their supporters;

-  the guarantee that all those engaged in (especially non-candidate-related) presidential election observation and recruitment and training for these activities will be completely free to carry out their work, also in cooperation with international institutions, which constitutes an essential element in the transparency and verifiability of the electoral process;

4.  Welcomes the invitation issued by the Belarus authorities to the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission, but urges the competent Belarus authorities to allow the OSCE/ODIHR mission to operate unimpeded in Belarus and to grant all participants in this election observation mission full and unrestricted access to the country and to all aspects of the election process;

5.  Deeply deplores the fact that the European Parliament and the Council of Europe have - unlike in the case of the presidential elections of 2001 - received no invitation to observe these presidential elections and calls on the Belarus authorities to extend a corresponding invitation to both institutions as soon as possible;

6.  Condemns the recent decision of the Belarus Supreme Economic Court to reinstate harsh and unwarranted penalties against various media on charges of tax evasion with the aim of stifling their voices opposing the regime in Belarus;

7.  Condemns the imprisonment of the opposition politicians Mikhail Marinich and Mikalai Statkevich, the criminal case brought against another opposition politician, Sergei Skrebet, and the imprisonment of various activists during their drive to collect signatures to register their leader as a candidate in the presidential elections;

8.  Condemns the Belarus Government's action against the Union of Poles in Belarus as a violation of the basic principles of the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities of 1995 and as an attempt to curb the largest non-governmental organisation and one of the few that were not controlled by the government, deploring changes in the leadership of the Union; recalls that respect for minority rights also includes freedom of association and recognition of the organisation's elected statutory bodies; deplores the Belarus Government's assumption of control over the Glosznad Niemna newspaper;

9.  Condemns the Belarus regime's complete marginalisation of the Roma minority in Belarus whose basic civil rights have been curtailed, and strongly condemns instances of hate speech against the Roma population in the official media;

10.  Condemns the regime's decision to ban the Reformed Evangelic Church, which had been present in Belarus for more than 400 years and which was outlawed because the community had no legal address, even though it could not have registered one because the authorities had previously evicted it from all its prayer houses, an action which violated Belarusian law on the freedom of belief;

11.  Condemns the recently adopted 'anti-revolution law', which,amongst other things, allows the authorities in Belarus to imprison anyone suspected of providing training or financing the training of people to take part in street protests or anyone suspected of misinterpreting or providing information about the situation in Belarus in any foreign country or international organisation;

12.  Calls on the Council and the Commission to provide as soon as possible the assistance needed to support independent media in Belarus and to enable NGOs working in Belarus to find alternative ways to their restricted means and ways of exercising and encouraging freedom of speech;

13.  Welcomes the project to establish a radio network broadcasting from Poland, Lithuania and possibly Ukraine, and calls on the Commission to give further support to the implementation of this project;

14.  Calls on the Commission to assist journalists and families in Belarus who are the target of the authoritarian government;

15.  Instructs the President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States and the Parliamentary Assemblies of the OSCE and the Council of Europe.