Тихановская призвала остановить финансирование режима
Petras AUŠTREVIČIUS - petras.austrevicius@europarl.europa.eu
Marc BOTENGA - marc.botenga@europarl.europa.eu
Alexander ALEXANDROV YORDANOV - alexander.yordanov@europarl.europa.eu
Mikuláš PEKSA - mikulas.peksa@europarl.europa.eu
Norbert NEUSER - norbert.neuser@europarl.europa.eu
Andrus ANSIP - andrus.ansip@europarl.europa.eu
Eric ANDRIEU - eric.andrieu@europarl.europa.eu
Roberts ZĪLE - roberts.zile@europarl.europa.eu
Adrian-Dragoş BENEA - adrian-dragos.benea@europarl.europa.eu
Tanja FAJON - tanja.fajon@europarl.europa.eu
Vladimír BILČÍK - vladimir.bilcik@europarl.europa.eu
Marek BELKA - marek.belka@europarl.europa.eu
Private Educational Institution "International Fundraising Center"
Belarus. Village Karpovichi, st. Lesnaya ,
my@dacha.work
Tamara Kowalchuk
Dear Sir or Madam
I am deeply concerned with the fact that the European Commission continues to finance not only the Lukashenka regime, but also its repressive forces, supplying them with equipment to use against peaceful protesters and even to bring criminal charges against them. And that despite the recent resolutions of the MEPs and the appeal to the European Commission to stop funding the Lukashenka regime.
The case in point is the transfer to Belarus of 15 drones paid for by European taxpayers. As gleeful reports in the Belarusian state media may suggest, the Belarusian authorities want to use the drones to investigate criminal cases. In Belarus of today, however, drones are actively used by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the KGB and other law enforcement agencies to identify peaceful protesters and bring charges against them. Let me remind you that, as of today, about 300 peaceful protesters serve various sentences in Belarusian prisons on criminal charges. The drones transferred to the Belarusian regime will let it bring yet more criminal charges, thus helping it counteract peaceful protests.
As you are probably aware, today our country faces a cruel tyrannical regime: human rights in Belarus are brutally violated; people are detained for merely walking the streets, for sharing their opinions on the current political situation, or for peacefully expressing disagreement with the current government; kids are taken away from mothers as punishment for participating in peaceful protests; and so on and so forth.
After the events of September 9, 10 and 11, 2020, when our government ordered riot police to shoot, beat and torture unarmed peaceful protesters, molest men and women, and detain teenagers, several persons were found dead. At that time, we all, the people of Belarus and of the whole world, realized that Lukashenko is ready to use any means available to him to suppress any opposition and keep his grip on power. In view of all that most of the world agreed on the fact that Lukashenko cannot be recognized as a legitimate president.
We were very grateful to EU countries for their support of our people and their attempts to help us resolve the conflict, restore human rights and let Belarusian people be heard. Unfortunately, on September 16, 2020, The Belarusian State Committee for Forensic Science announced on its website that it had received 15 new drones
The acquisition of this equipment was possible thanks to the Latvia-Lithuania-Belarus cross-border cooperation program for 2014-2020. The program is implemented under the European Neighborhood Instrument and is funded by the European Union. The project is designed to last 21 months. Its budget is 850,091.23 euro. The European Union contributes 765,082.10 euro to the project. A detailed description of the project can be found here.
We are all shocked that despite all the assurances of support to the people of Belarus, the European Union finances the regime and its bloody and violent repressions against peaceful citizens (alas, the existence of such projects proves unequivocally that the EU finances Lukashenka's regime). The fact the European Union funded the purchase of the drones shocked many Belarusians who expressed disappointment with EU’s actions. We would not like to see a huge wave of disappointment in European values and in the support of the European Union as the political crisis in Belarus unfolds. Now more than ever, we need to stand with the European Union, and the European Union has to stand with the people of Belarus.
I suppose the European Commission will that the drones were supplied solely to be used by the Forensic Examination Committee and the Border Committee, and this project was approved well before August 9. I would immediately like to provide several objections to this line of defense:
- 2. It does not matter when the project was approved. Here is what matters though: now that Alexander Lukashenko is not legitimate, it is not allowable to send money and equipment to his illegitimate regime. This means that all existing contracts and projects must be immediately terminated so that European taxpayers' money is not used to escalate bloody repressions and persecution of peaceful Belarusian citizens.
What would I like to see you do:
Could you please, as a member of the European Parliament, file a deputy request with the European Commission and ask for a list of all projects involving Belarus for 2020 in order to see which of these projects were supported by the European Commission.
Could you please demand to terminate all current projects involving Belarus and the Belarusian state authorities (the list is attached).
Could you ask the European Commission to explain how it guarantees that these drones and other equipment will not be used against peaceful protesters (there are really no guarantees, but you could ask the European Commission why it continue to finance the repressive forces of the Lukashenka regime). The Commission has to understand that the «word of honor» of Lukashenka and his repressive forces promising not to use this equipment against civilians is a mockery of the European Union and its taxpayers, who today fund repressions of peaceful protesters.
Could you please request information on the call for tenders under which these drones were purchased and on the company that won the bid. In our experience, government tenders, including those involving international projects, pose high risks of corruption and money laundering. I would like to check out the company that won the bid and how the bidding was handled.
Could you please request a detailed printout of the budget categories for this and other projects in the attached list. We would like to check them out. This is quite feasible as these projects are public and officially registered in Belarus. It makes sense to take a closer look at how the European Commission spends European taxpayers’ money.
We also need a detailed listing of budget categories, in particular for the hardware and software supplied under these projects. I would like to know what else the European taxpayers paid for to repress peaceful citizens in Belarus.
We would also like to trace the 53 million euro allocated by the EU to help the people in Belarus. Are these funds frozen? What has happened to them? How will this money be made available to the people of Belarus?
The list of the projects supported Lukashenko’s regime for the EU money, please see
Thank you very much for your time and cooperation.
Sincerely,
Tamara Kowalchuk
CEO IFC