Beloftes vrijlating politieke gevangenen Wit-Rusland sceptisch ontvangen door EU (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko's offer to expel political prisoners to the EU is most likely empty rhetoric, diplomatic sources say.
The Belarusian president floated the idea during remarks to press while visiting a paper factory in Shklov in the east of the country on Thursday (7 July).
"If the EU wants to take them [the prisoners], we will deliver the tickets and send them out tomorrow. No question about it, let them take them. If they are such guardians of political prisoners, then tomorrow we'll put them in one rail carriage ... even those who are still free and who now mumble in squares," he said.
"If they want them faster, I will arrange an airplane,"
His remarks come after a novel civil disobedience campaign in major cities such as Minsk and Grodno in the past four weeks in which people go out on the streets on Wednesdays, or on holidays such as Independence Day on 3 July, and stay silent or clap.
With the country facing serious economic problems, older people have begun to join the movement alongside young activists.
Plain clothes officers and riot police over the weekend showed zero tolerance, punching and kicking protesters and arresting around 400, including 24 journalists. Most were jailed for one-to-15 days or fined. About 1,400 have faced punishment since the silent demos began. Another 30-or-so people have been jailed for several years for their part in post-election protests in December.
A senior EU diplomat stationed in Minsk told EUobserver that Lukashenko's remarks on prisoners are probably hot air.
"It wouldn't be the first time he said something like this. He said in the past he doesn't want to feed ugly prisoners so it would be better to release them ... Lukashenko often makes loud statements in press conferences which come to nothing."
The source noted that Lukashenko feels internationally isolated and fears that the International Monteray Fund might not give him the $3 billion crisis loan he requested last month, however.
"It could be part of his political game with prisoners. He might be expecting a reply from the West whether anybody is ready to accept them ... He's looking for ways to get out of the situation, but he's doing it in his own special way," he said.
"The protesters are quite creative ... it's hard to distinguish who is walking [in silence] and who is protesting, who is sitting on a bank and protesting and who is just sitting on a bank," he added.
The official EU position is that Lukashenko must unconditionally free and rehabilitate all dissidents before relations can get back to normal.
A spokeswoman for EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton i told this website that further sanctions are an option. The union's latest tactic is to target business tycoons and their companies said to be funding the regime.
Vladimir Neklyayev, an opposition leader, told Reuters that the economic crisis could force Lukashenko to reform more quickly than the EU.
"This time the crisis has hit that segment of our society that potentially makes up the middle class, the most active people, the entrepreneurs, small and medium business which comprise the basis of any society .. They will not go along with living in poverty," he said.
"In order to avoid an explosion he has to go ahead and reform. Economic reforms are not possible without political reform and political reform will lead to him losing power."