Vienna/Moscow, Nov. 6, (dpa/GNA) – An investigation of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has concluded that the controversial election in Belarus should be annulled and repeated under international monitoring.
“As a general conclusion there is overwhelming evidence that the presidential elections of 9 August 2020 have been falsified,” the OSCE argued in a report published late Thursday in Vienna.
In September, seventeen mostly European countries, including Britain, France and also the United States, triggered the OSCE’s so-called Moscow Mechanism for rights investigations.
Austrian human rights scholar Wolfgang Benedek was tasked with collecting information on election fraud, alleged persecution of civil society figures and protesters, as well as arbitrary arrests and torture.
“Regarding the allegations related to major human rights abuses, they were found to be massive and systematic and proven beyond doubt,” Benedek concluded.
Benedek based his conclusions on more than 700 submissions from Belarusian citizens and groups, as well as reports from UN rights experts and non-governmental rights organizations.
The government of long-time President Alexander Lukashenko did not cooperate with the investigation and did not allow a country visit.
Supporters of opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya allege that voting was rigged to maintain Lukashenko’s grip on power.
The seventeen countries that triggered the probe said in a joint statement that the report confirmed their concerns.
“The first step towards progress must be for the Belarusian authorities to cease their campaign of violence against peaceful protestors, release all those unjustly imprisoned and hold perpetrators to account,” they said.
There have been mass protests against Lukashenko every weekend in Minsk for nearly three months, alongside unrelenting repression of the pro-democracy movement by security forces.
Last Sunday alone 300 people were arrested, according to the Interior Ministry. Photos and videos showed security forces using flash and shock grenades against the crowd.
Addressing soldiers, Tikhanovskaya and former culture minister Pavel Latushko said Lukashenko had “no resources left to stay in power” and that they should stop following his “criminal orders.”
Amnesty International said Belarus’ leadership was “showing its deep disregard for human rights and fundamental freedoms” by criminalizing peaceful protests.
Lukashenko, 66, has led Belarus, a former Soviet republic between Russia and several EU member states, for more than a quarter of a century, tolerating little dissent.
After a meeting with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Thursday, Tikhanovskaya said the two had spoken about ways out of Belarus’ political and economic woes and that she had thanked him for no longer recognizing Lukashenko as the country’s legitimate president.
GNA