Nr.: 127/99
July 20, 1999

OSCE Chairman-in-Office Statement on Belarus

The Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Foreign Minister Knut Vollebæk of Norway, calls for urgent resumption of a dialogue involving all political forces of Belarus.

20 July 1999 marks the expiry of the five-year term of Alexander Lukashenko as democratically elected President of Belarus. In November 1996, however, President Lukashenko extended his term of office by an additional two years. The President also suspended the 13th Supreme Soviet and the constitutionally guaranteed separation of power. Mr. Lukashenko’s action was a severe setback to the process of democratic reform in Belarus.

The Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Foreign Minister Knut Vollebæk of Norway, calls for urgent resumption of a dialogue involving all political forces of the country. He welcomes the recent promise by President Lukashenko to hold free and fair parliamentary elections in Belarus next year, as well as his support for a national dialogue on elections to be held between the Government and the opposition.

The Chairman-in-Office underlines that the parliamentary elections scheduled for 2000 must be free and fair. This will also require fundamental and sustained improvements of the human rights situation in Belarus, in particular regarding the prosecution of political opponents to the President on questionable legal grounds. Suppressive and restrictive measures by the Government against the opposition must come to an end. The disappearance and arrest of leading political figures and the violations of the country’s criminal law have done great harm to the international standing of Belarus.

The Chairman-in-Office calls upon both the Government and the opposition to commit themselves firmly to free and fair parliamentary elections within a new legal environment, as well as to equal access to the media and an open debate on the serious issues that the country is facing. The OSCE stands ready to do whatever it can to facilitate a broad dialogue between Government and opposition and to render all necessary assistance.