British Aid to Belarus Dictatorship

 
British aid money has been given by the European Union to help the security forces
of the last dictatorship in Europe.

Funds intended to help the world’s neediest have been spent on providing training and equipment to the police force and border guards of Belarus, an autocracy run along Soviet lines. The aid, supplied by the European Union’s EuropeAid programme, to which Britain’s Department for International Development (DfID) is a major donor, came despite violent action against the pro-democracy opposition.

The Foreign Office has expressed grave concern at the imprisonment and abuse of dissidents and also at the use of the death penalty, while an EU arms embargo has been put in place. However, the EU increased aid payments to Belarus to more than £32 million last year, including millions of pounds on projects to reinforce the country’s western borders.

The European Commission said the aid would curb people trafficking and drug smuggling, but dissidents claimed the equipment has been used to prevent the regime’s opponents fleeing.

Labour said the aid to Belarus was unjustifiable and urged ministers to raise it with the commission.
David Cameron is committed to spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on foreign aid, but Britain has direct control over only part of the budget, with more than 40 per cent distributed through third parties.

The EuropeAid programme receives £1 billion from DfID. The Brussels scheme has in turn spent £68 million since 2007 in Belarus, under the “neighbourhoods policy” designed to promote democracy in countries bordering or near the EU, and prevent illegal migration to the EU.

Procurement documents show Belarus has been bought equipment including motorcycles, patrol boats, swamp vehicles and thermal imaging cameras for border guards.

The list included £279,000 to buy and house guard dogs, £8.4 million on mobile X-ray machines and cameras to inspect cars crossing the borders, and £6.7  million on a computerized criminal records database and portable equipment to check biometric data.

The aid agency trained border guards in “document integrity, detection of forgeries and impostor recognition” and spent millions to clear the border strip and install new checkpoints, telephones and CCTV networks.

Human rights monitors are severely critical of Belarus, which has been ruled by Alexander Lukashenko, the so called president, since 1994. He has retained the KGB and other Soviet-era ministries, is accused of running death squads for political opponents and has named his son Kolya, nine, who carries a golden handgun, as his “heir”. He said last year: 
“I am the last and only dictator in Europe.”

Presidential elections in December 2010 were declared “fraudulent” by the American Senate, while the US and Europe have placed a travel ban and asset freeze on some regime officials.

Natalia Kaliada, director of the underground Belarus Free Theatre, accused Brussels of propping up the regime, which does not want its critics free to campaign.“With such equipment they would block all possibilities of escape completely. It would be a completely isolated country,” she said.

Jim Murphy, the Labour shadow development secretary, said there was no justification for aid to go to Belarus and called on ministers to take it up with the European Commission. “Aid is vital to help alleviate poverty and to support UK national security and economic interests. It should not support regimes in countries of concern with alarming human rights records,” he said. “Ministers must now urgently raise this matter with the European Commission to ensure no UK taxpayers’ money is being spent in ways which undermine our national interests or values.”

Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader who sits on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said: “Before financing equipment of this kind you have to assess the balance of risks of illegal breaches of the border against the reality of an unpleasant regime which cares very little for the human rights of its citizens. “If there is a suggestion that this equipment is being exploited we should think very carefully about continuing to provide it.”

DfID said its ministers were aware of the aid to Belarus and supported Europe’s policy of “critical engagement” with the regime. A spokesman for the European Commission said: “EU support for Belarus is all about promoting democracy and human rights and where necessary pushing the Belarusian authorities hard, whilst supporting civil society that seeks to hold them to account.”

Matthew Holehouse, The Telegraph.

Mr. "President" Where's The Money?

(Is Belarus Becoming a New European Zimbabwe?)

In 1994 one of the basic items of an electoral program of Alexandr Lukashenko was "indemnification of the lost monetary contributions of the population at the rate of Rouble-Dollar for 1985" (that is when 1 Soviet Rouble was 1 US dollar). Back in 1998 when Lukashenko already became the President of Belarus, a Special President's Decree has been published according to which all indemnifications should be paid by January, 1st 2008. And here we are, 14 years later Belarusians started to get invitations from Belarusbank to get back their contributions what they have lost back in January1992. Let's say you had 10,000 roubles on your account. For 10,000 Roubles on your bank account in 1989 you could buy a nice two-bedroom apartment in Minsk or a good new car. Today in November 2007 Belarusbank (and Mr. "President" personally) is offering you just $10 in exchange of, basically, $10,000. So, what you can buy in Belarus today for 10 bucks? A cup of coffee? Thank you, thank you, Mr. "President". And, by the way, what kind of mockery is that? What's going on in the Kingdom of Belarus under the rule of the"Great Performer" & Mr. MisManager?

Some post Soviet Republic's experience in this matter prompts: it's possible to return to people their lost contributions. And it's possible to do so that the people could be satisfied, and the state was not ruined. For example, in Lithuania the government returned to people all real estate properties (including land) what they have owned before. Also the government returned bank contributions to people - in the ratio 1:4. For lost 10,000 Soviet Roubles it gave 2,500 dollars back.

Is Belarus becoming a new European Zimbabwe? Sure, it does. Dictatorships are all the same on any planet and any dictator is never the people's servant but their Ruler. Any dictator is not living in a vacuum, he is always surrounded by his close "friends" (or gang members, if you wish). Any dictatorship has a typical mafia structure and is based on fear of getting rejected (or killed) by other members. Any dictator is a dead-walking man. As soon as he's loosing his power he is loosing everything very often including his life. There are no exceptions to the rule.

That's why any dictator is constantly hypocritical to his people. He just must lie in order to survive any longer. He just must throw to jail anyone who is telling him the truth that he is a pathological Lier. Any dictatorship is based on lies. Lies are everywhere - on TV, in the newspapers, on the radio, in the government, in economics, in politics, in the movies, in books, in schools, universities and kindergardens, in supermarkets and grocery-stores. And people must live inside those lies. They must believe that they can also survive with a $250 salary a month and dreaming about $150000 two-bedroom appartment. What people do not understand is that they can not survive without changing the system, without throwing away the dictator and his gang.

Mr. Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe has been the head of government since 1980. He likes the power so much that he re-elected himself again and again, not so long ago in 2007. Let's look at his dictatorial achievements more closely.

The Mugabe administration has been criticized around the world for corruption, suppression of political opposition, mishandling of land reform, economic mismanagement, and deteriorating human rights. According to most analysts his administration's policies have led to economic collapse and massive starvation over the course of the last ten years. Zimbabwe has the highest inflation rate in the world predicted to hit 1.5 million % by the end of 2007, and is, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Africa's worst economic performer. With a record 85 % unemployment and ~8000 % inflation rates, Zimbabwe is in its worst economic crisis since Mugabe took power.

What a nice guy! This is what 27 years of power can do to people. Must this nice guy to face an international tribunal for crimes against humanity and his own people just like the other dictators of the 21st century do? Sure they must be punished sooner or later by their own people. There is no escape from universal justice. Never. And it's coming.