Pavel Latushka Briefs the PACE Political Committee on the Coordinaton Council Election Results
- Pavel Latushka
- May 21
- 3 min read
Coordination Council delegate and member of the CR delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Pavel Latushka, addressed a session of the PACE Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy.
Pavel Latushka highlighted the enormous scale of repressions in Belarus, which have not ceased, drawing attention to the fact that, according to Dissidentby, as of today 920 people have been recognized as political prisoners. According to information from the human rights centre "Viasna", since 2020 at least 9,691 people have faced politically motivated criminal prosecution. At least 8,394 people have been convicted, including in absentia.
"The repressions in Belarus — the most extensive in the history of 21st-century Europe — are not merely continuing; they have long since taken the form of systematic state terror. The conveyor belt of repression does not stop for a single day."
Pavel Latushka emphasized that in order to achieve genuine rather than cosmetic political change in our country, we propose a strategy consisting of two directions:
The United States, using its sanctions pressure tools against the regime, seeks the release of political prisoners. It is also important to achieve the cessation of repressions.
The European Union and other democratic countries are urged to consistently employ sanctions mechanisms as leverage to achieve real, systemic change in Belarus.
"We ask that the message to the regime from European partners be unequivocal: dialogue with Belarusian society must come first."
Separately during his address, Pavel Latushka briefed the PACE Political Committee on the results of the elections to the Coordination Council.
He noted the unprecedented pressure that had to be confronted in conducting these elections.
"The regime created an atmosphere of fear among Belarusians. All slates that participated in the elections were declared extremist, as was the Coordination Council itself, which has been designated an extremist organisation. The regime staged fake detentions of Belarusian citizens inside the country, ostensibly for participating in the elections; relatives of candidates were subjected to repressions in order to coerce them into withdrawing from the electoral campaign. A large-scale campaign of discrediting and disinformation was organised — directed both at the Coordination Council itself and at the elections as a whole.
We faced DDoS attacks of an unprecedented scale. During the elections, more than 24 billion requests were made against the Coordination Council's electronic voting platform, generating approximately 68 terabytes of malicious traffic."
During the address, Pavel Latushka also identified several key priorities on which the CR delegation to PACE will continue its work:
To lobby among PACE colleagues so that other countries join the International Criminal Court Prosecutor's investigation into the "Belarusian situation".
To focus on transboundary crimes.
To support the work of the Special Tribunal on the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine.
To hold Lukashenko accountable for the unlawful transfer of Ukrainian children, within the framework of the case already under investigation at the ICC.
To implement the Luxembourg Agreements adopted by PACE, concerning the practical resolution of legalisation issues for Belarusians abroad — given that Belarusians find themselves in an exceptional situation in which the Lukashenko regime has banned the issuance and renewal of passports for Belarusian citizens residing outside the country.
To support political prisoners.
"As the delegation of democratic Belarus in PACE, we are committed to long-term and constructive cooperation with PACE. I believe that through our joint efforts we will return Belarus to the great European family of democratic peoples."
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