EU Parliament Calls for Belarus Hockey Boycott

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EU Parliament Calls for Belarus Hockey Boycott          - Sputnik International
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Belarus should not host the 2014 ice hockey world championships because of human rights abuses in the country, the European Parliament said Thursday.

Belarus should not host the 2014 ice hockey world championships because of human rights abuses in the country, the European Parliament said Thursday.

The parliament adopted a resolution saying the International Ice Hockey Federation should consider moving the tournament “until the regime shows commitment to human rights and the rule of law,” the parliament’s press service said.

The championships would be the first major sporting event held in Belarus, whose president, Alexander Lukashenko, is a keen ice hockey fan.

The parliament praised a protest rally attended by thousands Sunday in the Belarusian capital, Minsk.

The protest showed the “readiness of people to defend their position as Belarusian citizens with courage and to express their European aspirations," the resolution stated.

Belarusian president has previously condemned calls for the tournament to be moved or boycotted as political interference in sports.

“Belarus has earned this world championship. It has suffered for it,” he said earlier this month in comments cited by Belarusian website telegraf.by.

Neighbouring Poland’s foreign ministry has called for a boycott of the hockey championships on human rights grounds, telegraf.by reported Thursday.

A boycott was needed “due to the lack of positive signals from Belarus in the issue of human rights violations, including repression of the opposition and civil society,” ministry official Artur Michalski wrote to MEP Marek Migalsky, in a letter cited by the website.

The Belarusian ice hockey team’s bets finish at a world championships is sixth, which it achieved in Riga in 2006.

The 2012 and 2013 championships will both be jointly hosted by Sweden and Finland.

 

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