Cichanoŭskaja and Danish Foreign Minister discuss sanctions, nuclear threat, and accountability for human rights violations in Belarus

February 4, BPN. The European Union should openly support Belarusian sovereignty, Belarusian democratic leader Sviatlana Cichanoŭskaja said during talks with Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod in Vilnius on February 3.

According to Cichanoŭskaja’s press service, she “spoke about the situation in Belarus and the tensions in connection with the unprecedented deployment of Russian troops.” Belarusian democratic leader noted that it was “aimed at creating pressure on Belarusian society. The regime is using the escalation of tensions to divert attention from terror and repression.”

The sides “discussed the ill-treatment of political prisoners, the impossibility of visiting them and assessing the conditions of their detention.” “No one is allowed into prisons and prisoners are kept in an information vacuum.”

Cichanoŭskaja and Kofod also talked about the work of the International Accountability Platform for Belarus, cooperating with Dignity – Danish Institute Against Torture in Copenhagen. Belarusian democratic leader “stressed the importance of combining the efforts of all initiatives to bring the perpetrators to justice.”

The sides also noted “Lukašenka’s attempts to exclude neutral and nuclear-free status from the Constitution, creating a threat to the entire region and Europe.”

Cichanoŭskaja and Kofod “raised issues of assistance to civil society.” Denmark has created a fund to help media and human rights defenders and continues to support initiatives focusing on Belarusian culture and language.

The sides discussed the possibility of enhancing the effectiveness of sanctions at the EU level in the near future, including “closing loopholes in the supply of potash and oil products, as well as clamping down on corrupt schemes by regime oligarchs.”

“I am impressed by the dedication of the Belarusian opposition. We need to maintain international pressure on Lukašenka. Denmark is a strong and vocal supporter of the people of Belarus in their demand for free and fair elections,” Kofod wrote on Twitter following the meeting with Cichanoŭskaja.