mr president i will be talking about belarus and not hungarian domestic politics
it is twenty years since the soviet union collapsed but for president lukashenko of belarus it is as if nothing has changed at all
political repression is as rife as it ever was in the soviet days and lukashenko's secret police provocatively still called the kgb are used as its enforcers
as we remember from the post-election protests in december last year lukashenko is intolerant of dissent and seems to take pleasure in using violence and intimidation against pro-democracy activists
as this resolution today illustrates in graphic detail lukashenko has intensified his campaign for persecution and harassment against those who dare challenge his iron-fisted rule
we call on him to end this futile crackdown to release all political prisoners and instead to restore belarus to the path of genuine pluralist multi-party democracy
at last week's constitutive session of the euronest parliamentary assembly representatives from belarus were rightly missing
belarus is the missing piece of europe's democratic jigsaw puzzle and i long for the day when it rejoins the european family
