Le ong hanno raccolto molte testimonianze sulle violazioni di diritti umani in atto da tempo nel Paese: dopo le recentissime elezioni, vinte per l'ennesima volta dal presidente Aleksandr Lukashenko (non a caso definito l'ultimo dittatore d'Europa, con buona pace del suo amico italiano Silvio Berlusconi) grazie ad un controllo ferreo dell'informazione, alla repressione del dissenso e al ridicolo spazio di propaganda concesso ai candidati concorrenti, ci sono state retate e arresti indiscriminati di militanti e candidati dell'opposizione e di giornalisti dei quali non si hanno notizie. Lukashenko ha anche ordinato tempo fa la chiusura dell'ufficio Osce di Minsk.
L'appello è già stato firmato da molte altre organizzazioni internazionali come Amnesty International e l'Helsinki Committeei.
Qui di seguito il testo dell'appello.
Dear Colleagues,
We, civic organizations and activists from Russia, Ukraine and Central Asian countries, including those involved in the creation of the International Monitoring Committee for Human Rights in Belarus in December, 2010, wish to urgently appeal to OSCE participating States to immediately initiate the Moscow Mechanism of the OSCE with respect to the situation in Belarus. This mechanism, unlike other procedures within the OSCE, does not require consensus across the whole organization, but the endorsement of only 10 participating States. The mechanism would initiate a fact finding mission to assess and analyze serious violations of OSCE Human Dimension commitments, resulting in the publication of a report on the results of the mission. The findings and recommendations of the report, an official document of the OSCE, would serve as a basis for dialogue between the OSCE and Belarus, and can also be used by other international organizations in their dialogue and engagement with the country. Even if the authorities refuse to accept the mission, the decision to trigger the mechanism would be adopted through the decision of 10 countries, and the report will be compiled from the available materials irrespective of the ability to execute the mission. The amount of information and material available about the events of and following the 19 December elections is already significant, and will increase in the near future.
Belarusian colleagues, with whom we have daily communication, actively support this idea. Our consultations with diplomats from across the OSCE region have shown that they are willing to actively support the proposal and are waiting for the initiative of civil society. Within the OSCE, there is an active desire to finally do something about the situation in Belarus.
We have prepared the text of the statement on behalf of civil society (see attachment). We would like to send this statement on 10 January, signed by civil society organizations from across the OSCE region, to all missions of participating States to the OSCE. In addition, we will release it to the media and publish it on the internet. The situation in Belarus requires urgent action, and diplomats of participating States are awaiting civil society action. In addition, on 12 January, the European Parliament will hold hearings on Belarus, and the EU Committee on international cooperation and security will also be meeting. Although the EU is not the OSCE, our appeal will also be useful towards these events, as all EU countries are also participating States of the OSCE.
Please send all signatures and comments to
moscow-mechanism-for-belarus@googlegroups.com
We are eagerly awaiting your response and look forward to successful cooperation!
Sincerely, authors of the appeal:
Andrew Aranbaev, Turkmenistan
Dmitry Makarov, International Youth Human Rights Movement (regional)
Andrei Yurov, the Moscow Helsinki Group, Russia
Yuri Dzhibladze, Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Russia
Olga Zakharova, International Socio-Ecological Union (regional)