MINSK, 18 November (BelTA) - The decision to suspend the membership of Belarus in the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) was taken with violations, and Belarus intends to appeal the decision, Chairman of the Belarusian Paralympic Committee Oleg Shepel told BelTA.
The IPC now includes 184 organizations - national and regional committees, as well as federations for various sports. This week, during the IPC Extraordinary General Assembly in Berlin, 54 members voted for the exclusion of Belarusians, while 45 voted against and 18 abstained. In addition, it should be borne in mind that before the vote, certain work had been carried out with many on how to vote “correctly”. In particular, the representatives of Latin America were promised financial support if the “wishes” of the leadership were fulfilled. Moreover, representatives of many Western European countries, as well as the USA and Canada did not hide that they were almost fulfilling the order of their politicians to suspend the Belarusians and Russians. Moreover, delegations from many post-Soviet countries, as well as from Asian countries, in particular from Iran, could not come to the capital of Germany - they were not given entry visas. “What democracy can we speak about here, if all the laws are flagrantly violated?” Oleg Shepel said.
In his words, Belarus has prepared necessary materials to show that our country has not violated any point of the new Constitution of the International Paralympic Committee, which was adopted only six months ago. These documents were submitted to foreign counterparts and the IPC authorities at the General Assembly. “Nevertheless, everything was done to push through a decision on the suspension of Belarus and Russia from the global Paralympic family,” said Oleg Shepel. In addition, the IPC is going to make more amendments to its basic law. In particular, they plan to let the Executive Committee suspend athletes and coaches, as well as entire teams without any explanation.
The IPC is headquartered in Bonn, and in connection with this the Belarusian Paralympic Committee is preparing to file a claim for violations in the German court. According to the German laws, discrimination on the grounds of nationality, language and political views is not allowed in Germany. It is useless to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, as it usually does not go against the position of the International Olympic Committee, Oleg Shepel said.
