What agreements did the Americans have with Lukashenko regarding the release of political prisoners? Vecherko explains.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's advisor Franak Viachorka explained in an interview on «Euroradio» why the negotiation process for the release of political prisoners has slowed down and what conditions were put forward to Lukashenko.
When will the next political prisoners be released?
Franak Viachorka explained the pause in the release of political prisoners by the holiday period in the United States. This week in the States is practically a non-working week due to Thanksgiving, and next week is also likely to be quiet. However, according to the advisor, the process should intensify in the first half of December.
«Dzianis Kuchynski is going to Washington next week, he will meet with all our partners, including on releases,» Viachorka shared his plans.
The main problem, according to Viachorka, lies in the position of official Minsk:
«Minsk is trying to bargain as much as possible. They want not only Americans, but also Europeans to lift their sanctions. Lukashenko makes agreements, and then he thinks he sold it cheap — he needs to sell it more expensive, even more expensive. He changes the rules of the game during the negotiations themselves.»
Viachorka explains that Lukashenko, on the one hand, wants to take advantage of the window of opportunity in contacts with the US, and on the other hand, is afraid of losing control of the situation. The regime's behavior is also influenced by the economic factor: sanctions affect both the Belarusian and Russian economies.
Also, as Viachorka notes, Lukashenko is affected by the tension surrounding the negotiations on Ukraine: he is waiting to see which way the overall trajectory will go, and this increases his insecurity, from which he «darts and shies away,» dragging out the process.
At the same time, Viachorka emphasizes: «The Americans are determined. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya spoke with Cole a week ago. We are also in contact with Chris Smith and other people we work with, we transmit, we update lists — humanitarian lists, lists by category.»
As Viachorka proves, the United States is engaged not only in Belarusian political prisoners, but also in foreign citizens sitting in Belarusian prisons. They «work with other capitals» to release them, as happened, for example, with the Ukrainian side. As a result, some people were released according to the list that Kyiv handed over, the Belarusian human rights activists did not know about the people from it.
How humanitarian lists are formed
Answering the question of who and how submits the lists for release, Viachorka emphasizes: humanitarian lists are compiled centrally by Belarusian human rights activists in conjunction with democratic forces.
«The Americans have this list, the Vatican has it, other partners who communicate with Minsk have it. Minsk knows about this, Minsk still says that they are all terrorists, extremists, criminals and not political prisoners,» notes Tsikhanouskaya's advisor.
The main condition is no forced deportation
Separately, Tsikhanouskaya's advisor spoke about the conditions set by the democratic side.
The main one is: the release must take place without mandatory deportation:
As Viachorka notes, Minsk previously set a strict condition: all those released must leave the country. At the same time, according to him, during deportation the regime creates additional obstacles for people. Moreover, the release takes place «outside the legal procedure»:
«According to Lukashenko's services, these people either escaped from prison or continue to be in prison. That is, they do not receive any evidence or confirmation that they are indeed rehabilitated, indeed pardoned, indeed the charges have been dropped. And now the Department of Execution of Punishments and other bodies come to their families, again to terrorize and intimidate.»
Another condition is to leave families alone
According to Viachorka, the key problem is that «the agreements that even the Americans have with Minsk are still violated.»
Democratic forces are collecting evidence of all violations — including situations where authorities continue to terrorize families after releases. «This was the very first condition, that those released on the American track, their families would be left alone,» Viachorka notes.
Summarizing the nature of the negotiations, Franak Viachorka speaks quite harshly:
«We are talking, we are working with the Americans on the release, but we are negotiating with a thug. With a thuggish criminal regime that does not keep its word, does not keep its promises and that overplays everything. Therefore, the Americans agree on one thing, it turns out another. They agree on some people — they get other people. But they still continue this process, and we encourage it.»
«We hope that when it comes to a large group of released people, a large part of the people (we would like everyone, but at least a large part of the people) will be allowed to stay in Belarus,» expresses the hope of Tsikhanouskaya's advisor.