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The Czech Republic has no grounds to support Minsk, Tomas Jirsa, vice chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security in the country's Senate, told reporters in Minsk on August 20, as quoted by BelaPAN.
"Support for Minsk at the level of the European Union and the national level is out of the question. We speak about support for Belarusian non-governmental organizations," Mr. Jirsa said.
The lawmaker said that he and a number of his colleagues had arrived in Belarus on August 16, holding meetings with journalists and civil society activists and also meeting with members of the Council of the Republic.
The Czech lawmakers have been able to feel pressure put on independent media outlets, civil society and democratic institutions during the visit, he said.
Mr. Jirsa noted that the delegation had raised the subject of international criticism of Belarus' elections at a meeting with Nina Mazay, head of the international affairs committee in the Council of the Republic. "In our opinion, inviting representatives of opposition political parties to become members of election commissions could be a solution. She responded by saying that opposition forces are unable to reach agreement with each other. This left us baffled: what is the link between the opposition's participation in election commissions and internal agreements between parties?" Ms. Jirsa said.
He noted that Alyaksandr Lukashenka's controversial edict governing the use of the Internet also had been under discussion at the meeting. "We had been told by many that one has to produce a passport to walk into an Internet café now. Ms. Mazay replied that these rules are effective only for under-18-year-olds and only in places that lack filters for blocking websites with extremist or pornographic content. Maybe, Ms. Mazay does not have the full information," Mr. Jirsa said.
He expressed regret that Belarus was the only European country not to have joined the Council of Europe.