MINSK, 29 March (BelTA) - The topic of human rights has been made up as a political tool to exert pressure on the post-Soviet countries, Director – Editor-in-Chief of the Belarus Segodnya publishing house Dmitry Zhuk said during the Editors' Club program on Belarus 1 TV channel, BelTA has learned.
Fragments of video reports from the Netherlands and England were shown during the program. The footage showed security forces harshly suppressing protests against the strict anti-COVID measures. The local press, contrary to expectations, was primarily outraged by the actions of peaceful protesters. “A mob turns into animals in police attack,” the British tabloid Daily Express wrote about the protests in Bristol.
“Not ‘incredible people', but ‘a mob of animals'. This is to the question of the attitude to violence in the streets and unauthorized rallies,” Chairman of Belteleradiocompany Ivan Eismont commented on the situation.
Protesters were also violently dispersed in Belgium, said Vladimir Pertsov, Director of the Belarusian office of the international television and radio company MTRK Mir. According to him, they even set dogs on people there. “I am not surprised by such selectivity of the American and European human rights activists and parliamentarians to human rights problems: everything is bad in Belarus, but they do not notice anything bad there. They defiantly turn their heads and look in the other direction. Why is it like that?” he wondered.
“I will explain it to you, Vladimir Borisovich: the human rights' theme has been made up as a political tool for pressure on the other side - the post-Soviet space, those who do not support the policy,” said Dmitry Zhuk.
Vladimir Pertsov added in response that rallies in European countries are held not only against lockdown measures: various categories of citizens also come out to defend their rights, there are political demands there as well.
BelTA Director General Irina Akulovich said that the United States of America, which used to teach everyone, cannot monopolize the topic of human rights. “If we talk about human rights, it is not just the political part. Politics occupies a small place there. There are many other rights: to healthcare, education. In this respect, Belarus can just as well talk about the observance of basic human rights in the United States. So, yes, it is such a political baton,” emphasized Irina Akulovich.
