Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's visit to Germany included meetings with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffay. Ms. Tsikhanouskaya, Tatsiana Khomich and Veranika Tsapkala also met with Bundestag’s new President Bärbel Bas, as well as the leaders of parliamentary factions Rolf Mützenich (SPD), Friedrich Merz (CDU), Katharina Drege and Britta Hasselmann (Greens), Christian Dürr (FDP), and Federal Minister Claudia Roth.
In the result of the meetings:
– Germany will present an aid package for Belarusian students, media, human rights defenders, and various initiatives. Germany will also continue funding the Deutsche Welle Belarusian program and provide a separate round of assistance to Belarus' independent trade unions, which are now under repression.
– Germany will continue its policy of non-recognition of the Lukashenka regime and will not accept the new ambassador assigned by the regime.
– The Bundestag will consider forming a Friends of Belarus parliamentary group to replace the Belarusian-German parliamentary group that maintained contacts with the regime. The Lukashenka regime representatives will not be invited to the events in Berlin dedicated to the end of World War II.
– The Berlin administration may establish a rehabilitation program for the children of political prisoners. In addition, Germany will facilitate accepting Belarusian refugees from Belarus and Ukraine.
– Germany will keep issuing visas to Belarusians, most particularly to those repressed by the Lukashenka regime. Many families who faced repressions were able to relocate from Belarus to Germany.
– Germany will continue supporting the International Accountability Platform for Belarus, which collects evidence of the regime's crimes. In cooperation with Belarusian human rights defenders, the Platform has already collected 10,000 files of evidence and will submit them to the UN.
– The Belarusian issue and the country's role in the war in Ukraine will be raised at the international forums and multilateral meetings in the near future. Germany distinguishes between the actions of Lukashenka's regime and of the Belarusian people. The next visit of the Belarusian democratic forces to Germany with a number of high-level meetings is scheduled for late May.
– The Bundestag deputies will consider bringing Lukashenka to criminal liability within the framework of international institutions and the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
– At the meeting with President Steinmeier, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya raised the issue of security guarantees for the new Belarus, as well as Belarus' participation in the potential talks on regional security. Ms. Tsikhanouskaya and President Steinmeier also talked about the arrests of independent trade union leaders Aliaksandr Yarashuk and Siarhei Antusevich and support for political prisoners. President Steinmeier pledged further support for independent trade unions and media in Belarus.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Veranika Tsapkala, and Tatsiana Khomich held an open meeting with Belarusians and Ukrainians in Berlin, organized by the Razam diaspora association in Germany. They visited the Razam's storage, where volunteers collect aid for Ukrainian refugees and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
