The position of the NAM team and the Cabinet representative Pavel Latushko
August 9 is a day that will go down in history textbooks as one of the main dates of the struggle of the Belarusian people for freedom, independence and democracy. After all, free and independent nations are born only through struggle. Belarusians have made their choice in favor of democracy and we continue to fight for it together!
At the conference "New Belarus 2023", which took place on August 6 in Warsaw, democratic forces prepared a number of documents: Political Declaration, Declaration on Belarus' membership in the EU, Declaration of Solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and Statement on the regime's planned "elections" 2024.
I consider it necessary to clarify the position of the NAM team and the representative of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus on the issue of the transit of power regarding these documents.
1. We consider the Political Declaration as a basic document that fully corresponds to our strategy.
Our goal is an independent, democratic Belarus as a nation-state.
Our choice is the future membership of Belarus in the EU and withdrawal from all unions with Russia: the Union State, the CSTO and the EAEU. I should add - and from the CIS too. Which is also stated in the Cabinet Statement of June 24, 2023.
The main obstacle to achieving our goal is Lukashenko's pro-Russian regime, first of all - the dictator himself and his closest loyal circle, which is a criminal group that has temporarily seized the state and its institutions, pursues a policy of ethnocide and systematic mass repression, dragged Belarus into the war against Ukraine and surrenders our sovereignty in favor of Russia.
Therefore, our key task is to eliminate the criminal pro-Russian regime by removing Lukashenko from power, by implementing a strategy of comprehensive pressure on the regime, creating an alternative political system and splitting the so-called elites.
This is stated in the Political Declaration, which we join and are guided by.
2. Additional Declarations on Belarus' membership in the EU and on Solidarity with Ukraine were actually adopted during the development of the Political Declaration and are an integral part of the strategy outlined above.
3. As for the statement about "elections" - we see the need for a clearer formulation of the position.
Our own position, both that of the NAM team and that of the Cabinet representative on the transit of power, is based on the fact that we do not recognize the "elections-2024" as elections.
We declare that no election campaigns are currently possible in Belarus, and what is organized by the illegitimate Lukashenko regime is a crime.
Our position is based on the basic thesis - there are no legitimate authorities in Belarus that have the right to conduct any election campaigns.
Additional factors preventing this criminal imitation from being recognized as elections are: Systematic mass repressions and crimes against humanity against Belarusians;
the war against Ukraine, in which the Lukashenko regime participates on the side of Russia within the framework of the so-called "Union State" and commits war crimes;
the presence of Russian troops and mercenaries of the Russian PMC Wagner on the territory of Belarus;
significant loss of sovereignty of Belarus and the threat of loss of independence of our country as a result of criminal anti-state actions of the Lukashenko regime;
restriction of freedom of speech and other political freedoms of citizens of the Republic of Belarus;
deprivation of voting rights of a significant part of the Belarusian society.
Thus, we once again emphasize that the "elections" scheduled by Lukashenko's regime for February 2024 are not elections and therefore cannot be recognized a priori. As well as any imitations of "election campaigns" that this regime has organized and plans to organize - as long as it exists and Lukashenko is in power.
We will proceed from this position both in international work with our foreign partners and in communication with Belarusians.
We urge Belarusians to ignore and not to participate in the imitation of "elections". If you will be forced to participate under threats - proceed from the considerations of your own safety. In any case, we should understand that these are not elections, they will not be recognized, as well as their results, and any compulsion to participate in them is illegal.
We encourage democratic forces to continue building and strengthening alternative political institutions for the transit period.
The alternative campaign that we will insist on, which is fixed in the Political Declaration, is the election of the Coordinating Council.
And we call on all democratic civil society, political parties, institutions and public associations to support this very campaign to elect a new Coordination Council as the legitimate Transitional Parliament.
We do not stop the struggle, which we started in 2020, and we will achieve victory. After all, Belarusians will always be able to agree with Belarusians in order to defend together the sovereignty and independence of our country and ensure its European future.
We know what to do, we have a strategy and together we will build a system that will replace Lukashenko's illegal pro-Russian regime in Belarus.
Together to victory! Zhyvie Belarus!
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