Chancellor Angela Merkel’s (CDU) telephone contacts with Minsk ruler Alexander Lukashenko met with massive criticism from Belarusians in the opposition and in exile. “The Chancellor spoke to a terrorist. She shouldn’t have done that,” said Michael Rubin, coordinator of the Belarusian “People’s Embassy”, on Friday Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The propaganda in Belarus exploited the phone calls. Lukashenko thus achieved his goal. In talks with the Foreign Office and the Chancellery, the leading opposition politician Pawel Latuschka said he was concerned about the phone calls. “It is very important for the people in Belarus that Lukashenko is not recognized as president,” he told the SZ.
“We understand the difficult, dramatic situation of migrants on the border with Poland. But Belarusians are in the same situation as migrants. They are victims of the worst repression in Europe since World War II,” said Latuschka. The former Belarusian diplomat who fled into exile is a member of the Presidium of the Coordinating Council of the opposition. Merkel had phoned Lukashenko on Monday and Wednesday about the migrants stranded on the border between Belarus and Poland, but did not want this to be understood as recognition.
The goal is to change the situation, said the government spokesman
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert referred on Friday to the “worrying humanitarian situation into which thousands of people have been driven by the Belarusian leadership”. The Chancellor had made the phone calls “to improve or even resolve this situation,” he emphasized. “In such a situation it makes sense to talk to those who have the opportunity in Minsk to change something,” said Seibert. This is also the case “when it comes to a ruler whose legitimacy through the presidential election to which he refers, we like all European partners do not recognize”.
As a diplomat, he understood the clarification that Merkel had only spoken to “Mr.” Lukashenko and that this did not constitute recognition of his presidency, said Latuschka. “But it is very important to explain this to the people of Belarus. It is important to send a strong message that the German government has not and will not recognize Lukashenko as president,” he said. Lukashenko is only in power because he has the police, the army and Russian President Vladimir Putin by his side. The migration crisis is an “example of international terrorism”. Lukashenko brought it about to break political isolation and end the sanctions. The operation was coordinated with the Russian secret services. In addition to non-recognition and sanctions, it is necessary to initiate investigations against Lukashenko “as a criminal”.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis had also expressed skepticism about Merkel’s phone calls with Lukashenko and described them as a “dangerous path”. “Dictators and authoritarian people are known for breaking the law,” he said. Nor did they necessarily adhere to agreements. The G-7 states accused the regime in Minsk of “orchestrating irregular migration in a targeted manner”. A statement by the foreign ministers of the G-7 states called on the regime to “immediately halt its aggressive campaign that exploited the suffering of the people in order to prevent further suffering and further deaths.” International organizations must be given immediate unimpeded access to local people. Chancellor Merkel spoke on Friday in a video conference with UN Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and the Director General of the International Organization for Migration, António Vitorino, about the crisis.