None of EU Representatives Came to Interpol Conference to Minsk

Source: www.charter97.org

Representatives of the EU countries have ignored the Interpol conference started on Wednesday in Minsk. None of the representatives of the EU countries has arrived to Minsk, Interfax informs. The four European regional vice-presidents, all from EU countries, do not attend the meeting as well.

It is known that only 11 of Interpol’s 46 European members had so far said they would attend the regional conference of the organization. A representative of the European Commission informed about the intention to boycott this conference yesterday. An EU official in Brussels said the decision was taken last week to remain consistent with the bloc’s policy towards Belarus, after Interpol declined to move the meeting elsewhere.

It is still unknown representatives of which countries have arrived to Belarus. As reported, delegations of Russia, Turkey, Macedonia, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iceland, Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia and Montenegro, Bulgaria, Norway, the Great Britain, Switzerland and Belarus planned to take part in the work of the police forum. Representatives of Morocco, Israel and Mexico were to attend the forum as observers.

The boycott is part of the EU’s drive to isolate Belarus after condemning March`s presidential elections there as flawed.

Besides, the Interior Minister of Belarus Uladzimir Navumau, who is taking part in the conference, is a non-grata person in Europe. The international community suspects him and a number of other state officials in implication in abductions and assassinations of Belarusian opposition leaders Viktar Hanchar, Yury Zakharanka, Anatol Krasouski and a journalist Dzmitry Zavadski.