A discussion on Belarus was held in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. I, as well as the Belarus authorities, took part in this discussion as the only country outside of the Council of Europe.
The conclusion from the discussions was a decision to freeze contacts between the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Belarus government at the highest level. This is in reaction to the refusal by the official government in Minsk to put an end to the death sentence or to put a moratorium on the death sentence. That is something we see in the resolutions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
One is regard to the situation in Belarus on the actions of something called the escadron of death, i.e., the death squadron. A couple of years back, several branches of the secret services and the police ministries organized the kidnapping and execution of several people who planned to take part in the presidential campaign.
It is a special resolution that names specific names--representatives of the secret services and the police--and they intend to hold an independent, objective investigation into these criminal acts. However, a number of years have passed, and there is now a very realistic threat that the death squadrons may raise their ugly heads again.
One of the results of our visit might be that the Parliament of Canada would be able to take a number of actions before the presidential campaign. We have a stake in creating a special group of members of Parliament for a democratic Belarus, which would monitor the situation and could come into contact with civil society and with the political opposition in Belarus. We also have a stake in having direct relationships with the political parties, in signing agreements with them.
As for observation by the OSCE, we are definitely very interested in having the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly delegation having maximum representation by members of the Canadian Parliament, who could then come to Belarus during the electoral presidential campaign and be unbiased observers.
Merci beaucoup.