Labour Youth was excited this weekend to hear the leader of the Labour Party, An Tainiste and Foreign Minister, Eamon Gilmore pledge his support for Belarusian democracy.
Speaking last Saturday at the Tom Johnson Summer School in Kilkenny, Mr. Gilmore pledged to work steadily in his capacity as Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to impose pressure on the dictatorial regime of Alexander Lukashenko, with the end goal being the creation of meaningful democracy in Belarus.
This pledge was delivered in the light of Labour Youth's awarding of the Jim Kemmy Award for Social Justice to young members of MSD-MH, a Belarusian social-democratic party who have been actively campaigning for public awareness and resistance to the undemocratic and repressive regime of Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994. Under the current regime, fraudulent elections and crackdowns on dissent are regular, and human rights abuses have been widespread. Labour Youth sincerely hopes that we can look forward to an emerging democratic transition for Belarus in the near future, and that we can see the end of Europe's last dictatorship.
Labour Youth is working closely with allied organisations to lend their support and assistance in the encouragement of emergent democracy in the Republic of Belarus, and as such welcomes the Tainiste's pledge to support this process in his capacity as Foreign Minister.
ENDS
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