Sweden Discusses The Situation In Belarus And The Blocking of "Charter-97"

No dialogue is possible with the Belarusian authorities while the country blocks access to independent sites.

It was on agenda of the conference held in Stockholm and organized by Swedish human rights organization Östgruppen in the framework of Days of Belarus in Sweden.

Editor-in-chief Natallia Radzina of Charter97.org was invited to the conference. Political adviser to Foreign Minister Johannes Danielsson and member of the Swedish Parliament and former head of the OSCE Working Group Christian Holm took part in discussion of the situation with freedom of speech and the blocking of independent sites in Belarus.

Natallia Radzina called on the Swedish authorities to a principled assessment of violations of human rights and freedom of speech in Belarus and noted that the lack of international reaction to the blocking of the leading independent news site caused persecution of bloggers and development of amendments to the law on media, which strengthened control over Internet sites and social networks.

The editor-in-chief of Charter97.org also calls on the Swedish business to be more responsible cooperation with Belarus and recalled that through Turkcell a major Swedish telecommunications company Telia together with partners from Russia and Turkey owns a controlling stake in the Belarusian cellular operator Life:)

, which today blocks the site Charter97.org along with other Belarusian Internet providers. Natallia Radzina also urged Swedish companies not to cooperate with the Lukashenka Park of high technologies while independent sites were blocked in Belarus.

"The blocking of independent sites has reached catastrophic levels. Free Internet does not exist in Belarus, China, Iran, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan. Russia is getting ready to disconnect from the world Internet, pre-blocking independent sites. In fact, half of Eurasia will soon remain without free speech, as traditional media is almost destroyed there. How do countries with no freedom of speech look like? These are tough dictatorships, murders, arrests, torture of dissidents and ultimately war. Therefore, the free Western world must react immediately and in the most fundamental way," Radzina said.

Christian Holm said that he had already sent a request for the blocking of the Charter97.org to the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and also intended to discuss the situation with freedom of speech in Belarus with his colleagues in the Parliament. According to the politician, no dialogue is possible with the Belarusian authorities, until there are political prisoners and blocked independent sites in the country. Christian Holm also noted that he understood that as long as Aliaksandr Lukashenka was in power, there was no need to wait for changes in the repressive policy of the authorities.

The MP says that the Swedish Foreign Ministry and the Embassy of the country in Minsk should react promptly to violations of human rights and freedom of speech in Belarus.

At the conference civil rights defenders, representatives of journalistic organizations and public activists also urged the Swedish Foreign Ministry to more principled assessment of the situation with human rights in Belarus and noted that those issues were downgraded in the list of priorities between the authorities of Belarus and Sweden.

Political adviser to Foreign Minister of Sweden Johannes Danielsson stated he would get the opinion of the conference participants across to Minister Margot Vallstrem.

"We state that there are violations of human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of assemblies and associations in Belarus now. I also know that the website "Charter-97" plays a great role in Belarus," the adviser to Swedish Foreign Minister said.