De Zweedse mensenrechtenorganisatie Ostgruppen laat 12 experts uit Wit-Rusland aan het woord over elk van de 12 voorwaarden die de Europese Unie aan Wit-Rusland heeft gesteld. De statements staan op YouTube. Een van hen is BKDP-voorzitter Alexander Yaruschuk, die spreekt over de schending van de vakbondsrechten.

Bron: Charter97. Daar ook de andere video’s met vertaling in het Engels, zoals Tatjana Raviaka over het onderzoek naar de verdwijning van Yuri Zakharenko, Viktor Gonchar, Anatoly Krasavsky en Dmitry Zavadsky.

– The situation with trade unions in the country remains tense. It must be known that two years ago the EU deprived Belarus of trade preferences. It is an unprecedented occurrence. Only Burma was subject to such a punishment once, 10 years ago, and only after that the Belarusian authorities were pushed to make some steps in order to return trade unions’ rights.

Unfortunately, they haven’t succeeded in this work, and possible decided that the efforts done by them are enough to offer the issue of trade preferences return for the world community, the ILO and the EU. At the same time, today we can state that against the background of declarative statements about the desire to develop the dialogue with the EU, a new wave of pressure and repressions against independent trade unions becomes absolutely obvious. For today the situation has become even more difficult for us in many aspects, then it was half a year ago, and we have to note that the Belarusian authorities do not have an obvious desire to restore trade unions’ rights and develop the dialogue with the ILO and the EU in this problem.