Politics

Lukashenko outlaws all pro-opposition NGOs in Belarus

Moscow, Dec 16 (EFE).- Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday outlawed all NGOs affiliated with the country’s opposition, accusing them of receiving foreign funds and trying to stage a coup.

The decision comes as part of an ongoing clampdown on those challenging last year’s presidential election results, in which Lukashenko was declared the winner by election officials. The opposition, as well as the West, never recognized the outcome amid widespread allegations of fraud.

“We’ve liquidated all those organizations, which were financed from abroad and organized the coup and the insurrection,” said Lukashenko, according to state-owned news agency BelTA.

“Traitors cannot be forgiven. There will be no pardon for those, who tried to turn the country upside down and surrender it to outside forces. We see them and we detect dozens and hundreds of them,” he added.

Lukashenko, dubbed as “Europe’s last dictator”, stressed that those NGOs will never be restored.

On sanctions imposed on Belarus by the European Union, the United States, Britain, and Canada in response to the migrant crisis on the border with Poland and alleged human rights violations, Lukashenko said the Eastern European country will carry on despite those restrictions.

The Belarusian president said: “The sanctions are here. This is a given. They have already become a part of our lives. Another round of sanctions has been recently imposed against us.

“They will have a certain negative effect, but we need to continue to live and work peacefully, preserving the economic growth dynamics.”EFE

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