2023-05-12 18:07:36
On Thursday, the US ambassador to the OSCE called on participating countries, including Azerbaijan, to refrain from “flirting or meeting” with the Lukashenko regime in light of human rights violations in Belarus.
“The time has come to make it clear to all our partners that we must remain committed to the core values presented in the Helsinki Final Act,” Ambassador Michael Carpenter said in an online briefing Thursday.
According to him, cooperation with a country that carries out such repressions and is “a participant in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine” is “completely unacceptable”, he added.
According to a report by human rights activists, there are currently at least 1,486 political prisoners in Belarus.
People are arrested not only because of their publications on social networks, but only because their phone has access to sources of information that the authorities do not want.
“People are reportedly being arrested just for speaking Belarusian because it is seen as a form of protest. This level of repression seems to be aimed at the complete destruction of civil society and independent thought,” Carpenter said.
This week, Belarusian blogger Nikolay Klimovich died after being denied heart medication in prison. He was accused of spreading a satirical caricature of Alexander Lukashenko on social networks.
Contact.az
#ambassador #OSCE #avoid #flirting #Lukashenko