Friends of Belarus Calls the EU, the USA, and Canada to Open a Joint Front Supporting the Belarusian People
- 22.07.2021, 7:58
Congressmen of the cross-party caucus held a special meeting at the Lithuanian Embassy.
The Friends of Belarus, a cross-party group of the US House of Representatives, which aims to promote democratic reforms in Belarus, held a meeting at the Lithuanian embassy in the US, reports the Voice of America.
Friends of Belarus plans in the U.S. Congress include promoting financial aid to Belarus and lobbying for new sanctions against the current regime, as well as uniting Western countries to defend the republic's sovereignty.
The Lithuanian embassy was chosen as a venue for the Friends of Belarus conference. It should be recalled that it was Lithuania that granted asylum and protection to the presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya after her forced departure from the country.
When opening the conference, the Lithuanian ambassador to the United States Audra Plepitė said that "despite more than five hundred political prisoners in the country, and thousands of tens of thousands of detainees being tortured, the Lukashenka regime will not succeed in suppressing the free spirit of the Belarusians".
The Democratic Congressman Bill Keating reminded that last week the regime had tightened its repressions against a number of NGOs and independent journalists in Belarus.
"Friends of Belarus will serve as a new platform to promote democracy and support the Belarusian people, including thirty million dollars and bipartisan cooperation in promoting a sovereignty, human rights and democracy law in Belarus in Congress," Keating said.
U.S. Ambassador to Belarus Julie Fischer also spoke at the conference and called the launch of the bipartisan Friends of Belarus caucus "an incredibly important step in relations with Belarus."
One of the authors of the Belarus Democracy Act, Republican Congressman Chris Smith, told the Voice of America that the Biden Administration had to send a clear signal that sanctions against the Belarusian regime would be tightened.
The idea of the Democracy Act in Belarus is about individual sanctions. They are already working to some extent, but not in the way they should. Sectoral sanctions affecting whole sectors of business should also be accelerated. Because for a person who gets beaten up in a prison cell, every day seems very, very long," emphasized Keating.
Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur drew a parallel between the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the current situation in Belarus saying that progress and people's desire to be free are unstoppable.
"I believe that President Biden should make a clear statement about the need to promote freedom and the right of the Belarusian people to choose their leaders without coercion. And the U.S., as a nation, should pass a law on financial assistance to the people of Belarus," said Kaptur. "I also think that people in Europe, the U.S. and Canada should unite as one voice of freedom and sovereignty of Belarus as a nation, without any interference from the outside".
As VOA reported earlier, last Wednesday, Congressmen Bill Keating, Marcy Kaptur, Chris Smith and Joe Wilson announced the establishment of a bipartisan caucus "Friends of Belarus" in the lower house of Congress.
This group may include all congressmen supporting the democratic movement in Belarus and demanding punishment for the Lukashenka regime for repression of opposition and human rights violations.
According to the founders of the caucus, the group in Congress in support of a free Belarus "will be a signal to the whole world that the United States supports those who strive for freedom in the face of oppression".