Opposition leader discusses accountability for Łukašenka at Reykjavik CoE summit

May 17, BPN. Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja discussed accountability for Alaksandr Łukašenka and his associates with Tiny Kox, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), her aide Franak Viačorka has told BPN.

The meeting took place in Iceland’s Reykjavik which hosts the Council of Europe (CoE) summit on May 16 and 17. Cichanoŭskaja was invited as a special guest.

The sides agreed to include Belarusian authorities’ involvement in the deportation of Ukrainian children in the report on the situation in Ukraine, Viačorka said.

Kox invited Cichanoŭskaja to address PACE’s June plenary session where a report on migration from Belarus will be presented.

The report “should change the attitude of foreign countries towards the Belarusians in exile” as it highlights the situation of up to 500,000 Belarusians who left the country and are subject to various kinds of restrictions abroad, Viačorka noted.

The opposition leader discussed the activities of the CoE Contact Group on Belarus that has already launched several projects to assist journalists, young people and civil society.

Cichanoŭskaja also met with the European Council President Charles Michel, СoE Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović, and EU heads of state at the sidelines of the summit.

In a meeting with Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States envoy to the UN, the politician discussed preventing Łukašenka’s regime from being elected a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

“Belarus should not be a black hole on the map of the Council of Europe,” Cichanoŭskaja said noting that a democratic Belarus would aspire for CoE membership.