Luis Ayala: It Was Made Condition To Lukashenka

Secretary General of the Socialist International - about the situation in Belarus.

At the opening of the Socialist International Committee in Minsk, Luis Ayala (Chile), Secretary General of the Socialist International, made a speech. Under Pinochet, Luis Ayala was the leader of the youth protest against the dictatorship, a political prisoner, spent many years in exile.

Secretary General of the Socialist International described how Lukashenka wanted to meet with him and his associate in the Socialist International, the then Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. But they made a condition: the meeting will take place if Mikalai Statkevich, leader of Narodnaya Hramada - the party that represents Belarus in Socialist International, takes part in it, the press service of Narodnaya Hramada reports.

The press service has also published the text of Luis Ayala's speech:

"I welcome you all at this first official meeting of the Committee on the CIS, Black Sea and Caucasus.

This is the first time we are meeting in this country, but it does not mean that we have not been here before.

The history of relations between the Socialist International and Belarus began about 20 years ago, when the Social Democratic Party of Belarus became a member of the Socialist International. And now you are a full member of the Socialist International and one of the co-chairs of the Committee.

We have been watching the situation in this country for 20 years.

Over these years we have come here several times. I could have told about it for a long time, but I will mention a few cases.

I came here once with the Chairman of the Human Rights Committee. It was the Czech Prime Minister.

We did not inform anyone about our arrival, except for the parties that are members of the Socialist International. I informed Mikalai Statkevich, who represents our social democratic movement here. And we entered into a dialogue with various political movements, which were active at that time.

We did not look for a meeting with the government, although I was with the Prime Minister of the European country. By the way, Miloš Zeman is the current President of the Czech Republic and our great friend.

We have received an invitation to meet with the ruler of Belarus. Miloš and I discussed whether to meet with this gentleman and decided that it would be useful for the social democratic movement to invite the leader of the party member of the Socialist International to join us. And we informed the head of the government of this country that we are ready to respond to the invitation and participate in the dialogue. We just want Mikalai Statkevich to join us.

We did not receive a response, so the meeting did not take place. But this does not mean that we stopped our efforts".