EU slams Belarus, Ukraine in clash on human rights

by AClaire Rosemberg, AFP

Belarus and Ukraine won a sharp dressing-down from the European Union yesterday at a key summit with ex-Soviet states, with Minsk rebuked for the jailing of opponents and Kiev over the trial of former Premier Yulia Tymoshenko.

Sticking firmly to a new EU policy of conditioning ties to respect for human rights, leaders of the 27-nation bloc demanded authoritarian Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko immediately free and rehabilitate hundreds of opponents thrown behind bars.

The joint condemnation issued at the close of a two-day Eastern Partnership summit was not signed, however, by leaders of five ex-Soviet states bidding to enhance relations with the EU – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Belarus, also involved in the two-year-old partnership project to offer better trade, more aid, visa-free travel, and eventually EU membership, boycotted the summit in a huff after coming under a hail of criticism for Mr Lukas-henko’s heavy-handed crackdown on dissent.

“The behaviour of the regime towards the opposition is completely unacceptable,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of several European leaders to meet with Belarussian dissidents in Warsaw ahead of the summit.


(2011-10-1/timesofmalta.com)