Foreign ministry accuses Council of Europe of cooperating with extremists

May 18, BPN. The Council of Europe (CoE) has chosen discrimination against Belarus and contacts with extremists calling for new sanctions, said foreign ministry’s spokesperson Anatol Hłaz in a comment on the CoE Reykjavik summit that took place on May 16 and 17.

The CoE “has done everything to destroy the achievements of previous years,” by maintaining contacts with the opposition that is “calling for new sanctions and terrorist attacks against the [Belarusian] population,” he noted, in apparent reference to Śviatłana Cichanouskaja who attended the summit and met with CoE leadership.

He dismissed accusations of Belarus’ involvement in the forced displacement of Ukrainian children as “preposterous and inappropriate.”

He called on the states that signed the CoE summit declaration “to stop instrumentalizing and politicizing the problem of the rehabilitation of Ukrainian children.”

Children enter and leave Belarus legally and are accompanied by adults with all the necessary documents, he stressed.

“We do this openly and transparently, including in cooperation with international organizations and foundations, UNICEF among them,” he said.

Belarus may withdraw its application for CoE membership and review its relations with the CoE if its members maintain this “destructive line,” Hłaz added.

On April 27, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution calling on the international community to support the prosecution of Alaksandr Łukašenka for his role in the displacement of Ukrainian children. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) considers it a war crime.