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EU requirements are unacceptable, Lukashenka says

The requirements made of Belarus by the European Union are unacceptable, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said in an interview recently given to The Independent and the BBC.

“You set unacceptable requirements for us, demanding that we should change the country, change its constitutional system, change the entire leadership of the country and – what is better – transfer power to the fifth column, and so on,” the Belarusian leader said. “That’s why no only I but also our people won’t accept this.”

“You also demand that we sell companies dirt cheap on a mass scale,” he said. “We would be regarded as the best if we gave up our giants and sound and economically useful enterprises to Germany or Britain. If we turned away from Russia and readily moved in you direction, not caring about Russia, as the Baltic states and others did, we would be viewed as friends. But this is unacceptable for us.”

Belarus’ membership in the European community is only possible if Belarus “retains its independence, sovereignty and right to development,” Mr. Lukashenka said.

“God has predetermined us to be part of Europe and nobody can take away this right from us,” Mr. Lukashenka said. “Moreover, we are situated at the center, at the heart of Europe. Those who don’t want us to occupy this place can do nothing with this.”

“I don’t create problems for you,” he said. “What problems does Belarus cause to Britain? No problems. Do they, those politicians in Britain, at least know what situation is here, what the country is and who Lukashenka is?”

“I'm living through being democratized with a truncheon on the head by the West every day. Who needs that kind of democracy?” he said. “Why did you, the bastion of democracy, bomb out Iraq? You killed thousands of innocent people there. Children were killed! What did they do wrong? What was Iraq guilty of towards you? What kind of democracy did you bring there? You killed about a million people! Was it for the purpose of hanging Hussein?” //BelaPAN