Canada backs exiled Belarus opposition
We’re ‘on your side’ foreign minister tells opposition leader
VILNIUS, LITHUANIA — Canada’s foreign minister pledged support for top Belarusian opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is in exile in Lithuania, during a meeting Friday.
Francois-philippe Champagne told Tsikhanouskaya that Canada “will always be on your side.”
“In fact I believe you can expect that (the) entire international community will be together with you and the people of Belarus for the democratic future of your country,” Champagne said after the meeting, on the last leg of his European tour.
Champagne has said the result of the Aug. 9 presidential elections in Belarus, which gave the country’s long-standing strongman, President Alexander Lukashenko, a landslide victory strongly disputed by the opposition, was “fraudulent.”
The United States and the European Union have denounced Belarus’ election as neither free nor fair and introduced sanctions against Belarusian officials responsible for alleged vote-rigging and a crackdown on protests.
“This is a very clear sign to the criminals in Belarus that the international community is watching them and they should think twice before (unleashing) another wave of violence against their own people,” Tsikhanouskaya said after her talks with Champagne.
Tsikhanouskaya has that she
will call for a nationwide strike in Belarus later this month unless Lukashenko, who got a sixth term in office in August, resigns, releases political pris
oners and stops the violent crackdown on protesters.
Earlier Friday, Belarusian authorities issued an arrest warrant for Tsikhanouskaya.