9/11/20
PRAGUE -- A leading Belarusian opposition official has called on the European Union to live up to its commitment to support democracy and announce that it will stop recognizing the rule of strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka at the end of a three-month transition period. “It is a very important and necessary signal to Belarusian society. The time for the declaration has already passed. Actions are needed,” Paval Latushka, a former insider turned opposition activist, told RFE/RL's Belarus Service in an interview in Prague on September 10. Latushka, who said he slipped through Belarusian border guards in a diplomatic car, met in Prague earlier in the day with the Czech Republic’s foreign minister to discuss аn EU declaration. The former Belarusian ambassador is a member of the seven-person presidium of the Coordination Council, which was set up last month with the goal to facilitate a peaceful resolution to the political crisis gripping Minsk following the August 9 presidential election.
Latushka said Poland and Lithuania have already backed such a declaration, and he said he thinks that the Czech Republic is ready to support it as well. However, he hinted the EU is not yet unified on the position because of the “geopolitical concerns of third countries," a possible reference to Russia, which backs Lukashenka. “The European Union taught us! Taught us democracy! Now it is time to help,” he said with apparent frustration. He questioned “how many acts of violence are still required” against Belarusian civil society before the EU will act. The 47-year-old Latushka, who also served as a spokesman at Belarus's Foreign Ministry and as the country's culture minister, told RFE/RL he decided to join the opposition after seeing images of the tortured protesters. He hinted the Kremlin’s policy of backing Lukashenka would fail in the long run. "Russia needs to understand that if it has strategic interests, medium-term interests in Belarus, it needs to speak with those who will be in power tomorrow. They know well that Lukashenka's time has passed," he said.
