Opinions & Interviews
FM: Belarus under pressure for independent policy
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MINSK, 23 February (BelTA) - There is no reason why Belarus gets all the attention on the topic of human rights, except for the sole purpose of exerting political pressure on the legitimate government, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said as he addressed the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, BelTA has learned.
“Belarus is a young, independent state that has been developing steadily, in an evolutionary way. We have never claimed that our country is perfect. But we strongly disagree with the subjective accusations of human rights violations made against us in the UN Human Rights Council by some of its members. There is no reason why Belarus gets all the attention on the topic of human rights, except for the sole purpose of exerting political pressure on the legitimate government,” Vladimir Makei noted.
No country in Europe is under such intensive pressure from Western countries as Belarus, he said. “It seems that someone cannot get used to the idea that, despite the tough political and economic pressure, the Belarusian state keeps pursuing its own strategy as defined by its people rather than uses the western-inspired recipes,” the minister noted.
Belarus has been subjected to a brutal attack from the outside for this independent position, Vladimir Makei noted. Dissatisfaction of some part of the population with the results of the presidential election was chosen as the reason, according to him. “In order to overthrow the current government, all sorts of mechanisms were used to destabilize the internal situation: from fake news, political and financial support from outside of the supposedly ‘grass-roots’ protests to a wide range of political and economic sanctions. But Belarus has held out. We have preserved the country, its sovereignty and independence,” the minister noted.
The minister added that thousands of Belarusians from all social strata of society, people of different professions and views attended the Belarusian People's Congress in Minsk. He stressed that the discussions and decisions of the people’s assembly convincingly showed the majority support for the state policy to promote the social and economic rights of the people, the cohesion of the Belarusian people and commitment to constructive changes in social and political life, including the upcoming constitutional reform and steps to encourage citizens’ political activity.
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