mr president we are currently receiving conflicting signals from minsk and this is already some kind of progress in relation to before but the recent parliamentary election reinforced the popular western image of belarus as a kind of banana republic
on the other hand the recent release of political dissidents is a welcome development
if it is an attempt by lukashenko to reach out to the west let us reward his efforts with our cautious support
but we should be under no illusions about the widespread abuses of human rights and political freedoms in belarus
our focus must be the people and civil society of belarus a cause that this house has a noble and vital tradition of supporting even more so after today's speech by ingrid betancourt
the people of belarus yearn to take their place in the new europe
they need to know that we care and that we will not ignore them
