I used to consider Belarus closed country – UK envoy to Belsat TV (ENG video)

On November 1, a group of death penalty experts from the organisations Amnesty International, The Death Penalty Project and The International Commission against the Death Penalty visited the Belarusian city of Homiel to meet the local authorities, experts, public and media.

According to the foreign guests, Belarus is making progress in the field, but it is still not enough. The participants praised the idea to move the topic beyond the so-called discussion clubs. At the same time, they stressed that not a single representative of state-run media was present at the meeting.

Belsat TV journalists asked Andrey Naumovich, Chairman of the parliamentary commission on human rights, national relations and mass media, to comment on the outcome of the event, but he flatly refused saying that the meeting ‘was over’.

British Ambassador to Belarus Fionna Gibb, who was a member of the group, agreed to grant an interview to our channel.

According to the Ambassador, the Belarusians are more patient than her fellow countrymen. The top diplomat also said that she could describe the Belarusians better if she knew how to take local jokes. “Yet I do not have a full understanding of what Belarusians laugh at and about,” she said.

Ms Gibb joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1990 and has held a number of positions in London and overseas. She has worked in Berlin, Kyiv, Mogadishu, Basra – where she was Deputy Consul-General from 2008-2009 – and Sana’a, where she was Deputy Head of Mission from 2010-2012. Since 2016, she has been representing Her Majesty The Queen and the UK government in Belarus.

belsat.eu

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