Belarus: emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers

Among the demonstrators, employees of the Belarusian railway company, in Minsk, this Thursday, August 13, 2020. REUTERS / Stringer

Text by: RFI Follow

8 min

The deterioration of the situation in Belarus will be at the heart of an emergency meeting of European diplomats this Friday, August 14. The meeting must above all allow the adoption of a common position on the strategy to be followed to sanction the attitude of President Lukashenko after the electoral fraud and the repression of demonstrations and when the protest is taking on a scale never seen in the country.

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React, and react quickly, "yes" say the 27, but how? Sanctions targeted against personalities who played a role in electoral fraud or are actors of repression , several European countries are in favor, Germany in the lead. By sparing the population, however temper the Netherlands.

The European Union is already imposing an arms embargo on Alexander Lukashenko's regime and targeted sanctions against several political leaders. It had lifted a number of other measures in recent years which could be reinstated.

See also: Presidential election in Belarus: concert of critics in Europe after Lukashenko's victory

But the countries bordering Belarus, united around Poland , are pleading for dialogue. Breaking ties or robbing Minsk means being more directly exposed to Russia, the Baltic States or Finland may fear in particular, which support the idea of ​​a Warsaw mediation between Minsk and the European Union.

The meeting this Friday will not give anything concrete, the videoconference does not allow it. But it allows the European Union to come forward. For decisions, we will have to wait for the physical meeting of ministers at the end of the month.

Sanctions, if that is the choice made, will then have to be adopted unanimously by the European Council on September 24 and 25. 

For Ronan Hervouet, lecturer in sociology at the University of Bordeaux, the EU must intervene.

So far, the sanctions have never had much influence because in this case, it is the Russian ally who came back as a privileged partner. (...) Symbolically not to react would be terrible. It is a border country with the European Union.

Ronan Hervouet, Lecturer in sociology at the University of Bordeaux, on sanctions

Anissa El Jabri

The protest does not weaken

The call for a general strike launched on Tuesday finally had an effect. Workers of famous Belarusian state factories joined on Thursday the protest movement against the re-election deemed fraudulent of President Alexander Lukashenko, which brings together tens of thousands of people despite the repression of the security forces. In about thirty provincial towns, but also in Minsk where the medical staff or the musicians of the philharmonic went out in the street to form a human chain. It is the entire population in its diversity that is mobilized despite a very brutal repression. A curfew has been put in place and internet access has been cut.

It takes courage to take to the streets in Belarus today given the threats made by Lukashenko ahead of Sunday's poll. He announced that he was ready to fire live ammunition at the population if necessary. (...) Today, we have ordinary people who are not usually politically involved in their daily life and who suddenly take to the streets and say "no", "stop".

Ronan Hervouet, Lecturer in sociology at the University of Bordeaux, on strikes

Anissa El Jabri

Ronan Hervouet is the author of Le gout des tyrans . Une Ethnographie politique du Quotidien En Belarus, to be published at the end of August by Le Bord de l'eau.

To read also: Belarus: the street does not take off after the disputed presidential election

Families without news and prisoners beaten

UN human rights experts say they are "  outraged by police violence against peaceful protesters and journalists  ." They call on the international community to step up the pressure on the government. To date there are officially 2 dead and nearly 7,000 arrests.

In Jodino, a town of 60,000 inhabitants, 70km from Minsk, the special envoy of the Russian editorial staff of RFI Serguei Dmitriev went to a large prison where families gathered to ask for news of their relatives and where the first prisoners released testify to having been beaten by the police.

More than 7,000 demonstrators have been arrested and to date hundreds of families do not know the whereabouts of their loved ones. (...) In front of the prison, there are hundreds of cars, thousands of people who have arrived to find out if their relatives are there.

The testimony of Sergey Dmitriev, journalist for the Russian editorial staff of RFI

Heike schmidt

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  • Belarus
  • European Union
  • Alexander Lukashenko

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