WARSAW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th August, 2020) The chairs of the foreign affairs committees of the parliaments of Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have called on the Belarusian authorities to immediately stop the use of force toward protesters.
In a joint statement, published on Wednesday, the committee chairs said that they "received with deep regret the information about the repressions against civil society and the media before, during and after the presidential elections that took place on August 9 in Belarus."
"We call on the Belarusian authorities to immediately end the use of force and persecution. The activities that we are observing do not fit within the democratic standards," the document read.
The senior lawmakers described the right for a free election, as well as freedom of speech and assembly, as fundamental human rights, urging Minsk to release "all political prisoners" and those "illegitimately detained in recent days."
They called for a "genuine social dialogue for the much expected changes that Belarusians find desirable and necessary," calling the latter a "proud, prudent, responsible European society, whose courage and wisdom demonstrated in recent days inspire us to act together."
Unsanctioned mass protests have been ongoing in Belarus since Sunday evening, when the first election results showed incumbent Alexander Lukashenko secure his sixth term with over 80 percent of the vote. Opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who came in second with 10.09 percent, has claimed that the voting records indicate that she won with 70-80 percent of the vote.
During the unrest, protesters erected barricades and hurled Molotov cocktails at law enforcement officers. The police have responded with tear gas, water cannons and stun grenades. Some 6,000 people have been detained. Among them are at least three Polish nationals, Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski told the PAP news agency, noting that the ambassador in Minsk had already demanded their release.
