Anarchists Protest Council of Europe & Lukashenko
Dan Clore
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
AZG Armenian Daily #090
20/05/2005
LUKASHENKO SHOULD BE OVERTHROWN
Signal of CE Summit
While the leaders of some CE member countries were
discussing the issue of democratizing Byelorussia and
overthrowing the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, about 1000
anarchists were condemning the activities of the biggest
political organization in the streets of Warsaw.
The anarchists stated that the Council of Europe is a
useless and expensive structure. They kept saying that its
activities yield no effective results. The Polish and
foreign anarchists thought that the documents adopted by the
Council of Europe are "absurd bills," while the organization
men are "schizophrenics and two-faced."
To Build Democracy in Byelorussia Means to Overthrow Lukashenko
The leaders of the neighboring countries of Byelorussia,
except for Russia, believe that the overthrow of Alexander
Lukashenko's dictatorship is an issue of primary importance
at the third CE Summit.
Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President of Latvia, called Lukashenko
"the last dictator of Europe," expressing hope that "one day
Byelorussia will join the great community of democracy."
Valdas Adamkus, President of Lithuania, called Byelorussia
"a gray area on the map of the European democracy." He said
that "it is necessary to support the people of Byelorussia
in building an open and democratic society."
The leaders of Estonia, Poland and Georgia, as well as other
high-ranking officials of CE made similar statements on this
issue. By the way, the anarchists that condemned CE, were
criticizing Lukashenko as well. They complained that CE
member countries Turkey and Russia are violating the rights
of the Kurds and the Chechens, while a number of European
countries led by the US continue inhumane actions in Iraq.
CE Summit without Important Leaders
The Council of Europe that has 56 years of history had held
its third summit. If in 1993, the CE Summit in Vienna
contributed to the enlargement of the CE to the East,
including the former Soviet republics and the socialistic
states, four years later, in 1997, the CE Summit in
Strasbourg, stated the importance of maintaining the
democracy and human rights issues in the newly admitted
member states.
There were three main topics in the Warsaw Summit, i.e.
European integrity and European values, the challenges
threatening to Europe (terrorism, corruption, organized
crime, trafficking). and the European architecture.
Only Gerhard Schroder, Chancellor of Germany, arrived in
Warsaw, among the five leaders of the five powerful European
states. French President Jacques Shirac, Tony Blair, British
PM and Silvio Berlusconi, Italian PM gave preference to the
home affairs of their own countries. While Vladimir Putin
didn’t arrive in Warsaw because of complicated relations
between Russia and the CE, as well as the relations between
Russia and Poland.
If the CE condemned Russia in crackdown on democracy, in
violating the human rights, including the actions in
Chechnya, the Polish authorities allow to call squares after
Chechen attackers in Warsaw, that are merely called
terrorists in Russia.
Black Spots of Europe
Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgian President, called
"Transdniestria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the remains of
the Soviet empire," "the black spots" of Europe. He
expressed hope that Romania, Ukraine and Georgia will play a
decisive part in the settlement of these conflicts.
In general, Saakashvili tried to introduce himself not only
as a leader of a very important country, but also as a
missioner that is ready to make the Black Sea basin an oasis
for democracy. He reminded of the visit of George Bush to
Tbilisi in his speech and added that the military presence
of Russia in his country is the drawback of the Soviet
empire and called for Russia to withdraw its forces from
Georgia.
CE and OSCE to Cooperate More Actively
The Council of Europe and the OSCE adopted a declaration
within the framework of the CE Summit, according to which
they should unfold more active cooperation to face the
challenges and the threats of the 21st century.
The CE is gradually becoming less attractive for the EU
member countries, in particular. These countries are the
members of both the EU and the OSCE. In fact, the leading
European countries do not impart much importance to the
Council of Europe, while the countries that support
democracy and the human rights often criticize the
organization for meddling in their home affairs.
By Tatoul Hakobian in Warsaw
AZG Armenian Daily #090
20/05/2005
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Dan Clore
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