Svetlana Tichanowskaya criticizes: the Belarusian opposition expects more help from Switzerland

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Switzerland should ask the regime of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko unpleasant questions, Tikhanovskaya said in an interview with Tamedia published on Monday. “Switzerland has the diplomatic staff,” she said.

Tikhanovskaya would like the Swiss ambassador in Minsk, Christine Honegger Zolotukhin, to “work more actively for the release of people imprisoned for political reasons in the worst conditions.”

EDA defends its work

The interview was conducted before Tichanowskaya’s visit to Switzerland earlier this week. She will travel to Geneva on Monday to meet with the United Nations (UN) ambassadors. On Tuesday she wants to meet representatives of the Swiss parliament and the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs (EDA), including State Secretary Alexandre Fasel.

Switzerland is committed to the arbitrary detention of people in Belarus, both in a bilateral and multilateral framework, the FDFA emphasized on Monday. The Swiss ambassador in Minsk is making an important contribution in this regard.

‘What does the UN do? Nothing”

The politician accused the UN of inaction: “People are being arbitrarily arrested, people are dying in prisons. What does the UN do? Nothing.” The death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny should be a wake-up call for the United Nations. “We must no longer tolerate such blatant human rights violations,” she said.

Shortly after Navalny’s death, Tikhanovskaya met with the wife of Russia’s opposition leader, Yulia Navalnaya. The opposition movements do not often work together, Tikhanovskaya said. The conditions in Belarus and Russia are different.

“In 2020 there were presidential elections in Belarus, which I won according to independent counts,” the exiled politician said. Tikhanovskaya said the elections gave her the right to form a shadow government. The European Union no longer recognizes Lukashenko as head of state. (SDA)

Source:Blick