Speech by H.E. Pavel Latushka, Head of the National Anti-Crisis Management, Deputy Head of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, at the conference “Responsibility of Lukashenko’s regime for crimes against humanity and migrant crisis: prospects for international justice”
12 June 2023 Vilnius
In 2020, the Belarusians came out for democracy, for the European standards that have the key element – respect for the law and responsibility for its violations.
In its turn, in Belarus we have the situation when the Lukashenko’s regime has been violating the law each and every day. At the same time there is no justice for the victims. To be more precise, there are neither legal prosecution, nor courts in Belarus.
All instruments for justice are outside Belarus, in democratic states. But there is not any example when such instruments have been applied.
What are the consequences in the described situation? The Belarusians fell into disbelief in democracy, its principles, and democracy forces.
As a result, the key issue now is to start the use of the legal instruments of bringing perpetrators to justice. For example, it could be a warrant for a start.
If the Belarusians do not have such, let’s say, “justice in action”, it will be a reasonable conclusion: the democratic institutes are not effective.
The National Anti-Crisis Management, which supports the United Transitional Cabinet, is dealing with legal pressure on the regime. This is the question of universal criminal jurisdiction, lobbying for the creation of a special international tribunal for crimes against humanity, using the tools of the Rome Statute of the ICC. Our team prepared a report on the role of Lukashenko and the Union State of Belarus and Russia in the illegal transfer and re-education of Ukrainian children in Belarus. The report consists of two parts – open and closed – and it contains facts, documents, and evidence of Lukashenko's personal responsibility for the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children to the territory of Belarus and the organization of the re-education of children. As a new element of these crimes, we discovered the role of the so-called Union State of Belarus and Russia in this. Under the auspices of the Union State and with the financial support of this institution, the transfer and re-education of Ukrainian children is taking place.
The Belarusians have been waiting for Nürburg for Lukashenko. In 2021, we held the special conference in Nürburg where our team of the National Anti-Crisis Management presented the possible scenarios of how such justice could be carried out. It was symbolic for us and sensitively harmful for the regime.
The question of responsibility is the question of the elite division. It is highly important. Not everyone within the Lukashenko’s regime wants to be a criminal. Not everyone wants to commit a crime.
An official should have a choice: stay in the system and commit crimes, resign and not commit crimes, or the third option, just not go into the system where you will commit crimes. This will gradually destroy the system. And it will lead to a split in the elites. That's one of our key goals. Criminal prosecution is one of the key elements of splitting the elites.
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