MINSK, 25 May (BelTA) – The permanent mission of the Republic of Belarus to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva has released a statement in response to the stance on Belarus presented by Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), on 25 May, BelTA has learned.
The statement reads: “Neither the UN as a whole, nor the high commissioner, nor the OHCHR, nor all the more so a mid-tier official of the UN Secretariat, Mr Rupert Colville is an authorized institution for evaluating actions of authorities of sovereign countries.”
The permanent mission of the Republic of Belarus to the United Nations noted that the relevant Belarusian authorities had recognized the citizen Roman Protasevich as a suspect in several criminal cases in line with laws of the Republic of Belarus, this is why an international arrest warrant had been issued. “He was lawfully detained by law enforcement agencies in an international airport of the Republic of Belarus,” the mission stressed. “By qualifying actions of the Belarusian state in relation to the arrest of the Belarusian citizen Roman Protasevich as illegal, arbitrary, and abusive indicates the international official has exceeded his authority and has gone beyond the mandate of the OHCHR. It testifies the official has violated the principle of impartiality of international UN officials and has violated the presumption of innocence.”
The mission stressed that the OHCHR secretariat official has no legal documents that have been recognized by all the members of the international community to make such claims regarding the arrest of Roman Protasevich. The UN official proceeds only from political opinions expressed by politicians and civil servants of quite a small group of Western countries out of 194 UN member states.
The mission stressed: “Rupert Colville has no legal grounds except for assumptions and speculations of politicians and officials from those Western countries to be able to use words like ‘the threat of military force', ‘forced landing', or ‘forcibly diverted' in a public document to address the incident with the Ryanair aircraft in Belarus' air space on behalf of an aide to the UN secretary general. He had come up with all these assumptions and speculations even before formal international investigation procedures were started by representatives of the relevant international bodies, in particular, ICAO, IATA, and EASA. In accordance with their international commitments Belarusian authorities have invited these and other organizations, which are competent in passenger transportation by air, including administrations of the United States and the European Union, to participate in the investigation of this incident.”
The permanent mission of the Republic of Belarus to the United Nations stressed that Rupert Colville's statement demonstrates his personal bias and prejudice, which are inadmissible for an international functionary, in his desire to support evaluations of the event as interpreted by a small group of Western countries. “We respect personal convictions of Rupert Colville and of the high commissioner he represents, including care for the condition of Roman Protasevich, who has been arrested and yet enjoys all the rights and bears all the obligations of a Belarusian citizen, but we believe it is unacceptable to express these convictions in an official public document on behalf of the United Nations Organization.”
The permanent mission of the Republic of Belarus to the United Nations in Geneva demands to see trustworthy evidence able to confirm these intolerable qualifications of Belarus' actions are justified instead of a demonstration of “a vial with dental powder”. “In the absence of such evidence we demand the OHCHR should offer a public disavowing apology,” the Belarusian mission concluded.
