The Coordinating Council of the Belarusian opposition on Friday called on representatives of state bodies to engage in dialogue with the public, stressing that they did not want the situation to escalate.
“How can you, the people in the state structures, the people who are called to serve Belarus and its people? How can you express your position on what is happening in the country? First, you can express yourself, society, future, history. with the public, “the council said.
Neither the members of the Coordinating Council nor the sensible members of the public want an escalation of the confrontation, the council said.
“However, we see that instead of dialogue and developing common scenarios for the future, our country’s top officials continue to address the accumulated problems with ‘bloodshed’, as Pavel Yakubovich, former editor-in-chief of Sovetskaya Belarus, recently pointed out. pressure, criminal cases, “the call said.
At the same time, the media have spread the announcement of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko that he will not engage in dialogue with the coordination headquarters of the rival of the presidential election Svetlana Tihanovska, but with the work teams.
“And why should we dance on the stabules of others? We held elections, let’s live in peace. Do you want to talk, as they (the Opposition Coordination Council) say, dialogue? Here, I have a dialogue with you. Lukashenko is quoted as saying by the official news agency BelTA.
The European Union (EU) on Friday demanded that Belarus close the criminal case on the creation of an opposition coordination council, accusing the Minsk authorities of intimidating the opposition.
The EU is currently preparing sanctions against Belarusian officials responsible for falsifying the presidential election and suppressing protests.
“We hope that the Belarussian authorities will end this criminal case and instead engage in dialogue with a view to finding a peaceful solution to the current crisis,” EU Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Nabila Masrali said on Friday.
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Belarus said on Thursday that a criminal case has been initiated in connection with the establishment of the opposition coordination council.
A criminal case has been instituted under Article of the Criminal Code, which provides for a penalty for incitement to acts aimed at harming the national security interests of the state.
Maksims Znaks, a member of the Bureau of the Coordinating Council, told the Interfax news agency that the council expresses the civic position of the society and continues to operate.
“The council is continuing its work, but we understand that within the criminal case, the authorities have a myriad of tools to complicate the work of the council,” Znak said.
He stressed that the council does not pose a threat to Belarus’ national security.
Belarus’s Prosecutor General Alexander Koņuk said on Thursday that the activities of the opposition Coordination Council were unconstitutional and aimed at seizing state power.
According to the official results of the presidential election in Belarus on August 9, the current head of state Alexander Lukashenko won 80.1% of the vote and the opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovska – 10.1%, but the opposition believes that the election results are fake and Tikhanovska has won the election convincingly.
Protests against electoral fraud and President Lukashenko, who have often escalated into protests by security forces, have continued in the capital, Minsk, since 9 August. During the protests, several thousand people were detained and several hundred were injured. Workers in many companies have gone on strike.
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