INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
BELARUS UPDATE

Edited by Victor Cole

Vol. 5, No. 49

December 2002

IN THIS ISSUE:

-Dealing With Lukashenko: US Lawmakers Learn A Lesson
-Belarus Ready To Start Talks On OSCE Mission?
-Minsk Denies Entry To Human Rights Monitors
-COE Awaits "Clear Signals" From Belarus
-Opposition Barred From Electoral Committees
-Autopsy To Determine Cause of Ukrainian Journalist's Death
-Minsk Keeps Selling Oil And Gas Assets To Russians
-Missing Ambassador Turns Up, Plans To Return Home

--HUMAN RIGHTS AND OPPOSITION NEWS -

DEALING WITH LUKASHENKO: US LAWMAKERS LEARN A LESSON

On December 3-4, a U.S. congressional delegation including Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA), Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), and Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MO), a staff specialist on military issues from the U.S. House of Representatives and three businessmen visited Minsk. The stated goal of their visit was to "normalize relations" between the U.S. and the OSCE and the government of Belarus. In response to a reporter from RIA-Novosti, Rep. Weldon, the head of the delegation, said that the idea of a dialogue with the Belarusian leader was suggested by the leadership of the Russian State Duma Gennady Seleznev, Lubov Sliska, as well as by other Russian politicians.

According to the congressmen, during a four-hour dinner with Alexander Lukashenko on December 3, and one-hour long meeting on December 4, "quite daring plans of cooperating with Belarus" were discussed. "At the same time, we made it clear to Lukashenko that an OSCE mission must be able to operate in Belarus. Moreover, the U.S. Congress does not intend to establish any relations with the country's illegitimate parliament," said Rep. Weldon, referring to the current rubber-stamp National Assembly controlled by Lukashenko. According to the American law-makers, a free and democratic parliamentary election in Belarus would "change for the better" the current relations between the U.S. and Belarus.

The US delegation also met in Minsk with opposition leaders Anatoly Lebedko, head of the United Civic Party; Stanislav Shushkevich, leader of the Belarusian Social-Democratic Party; and Sergei Kalyakin, head of the Party of Communists of Belarus.

Commenting on the U.S. congressmen's visit to Minsk, Andrei Sannikov, Charter 97 international coordinator, said that "the coming of American congressmen is untimely, especially in light of the U.S. decision to impose a travel ban on Lukashenko and his officials. Lukashenko will definitely try to misuse this visit." Confirming Sannikov's expectations, the Lukashenko's press office then proceeded to put out a press-release implying that the U.S. lawmakers had praised his leadership. "The head of the U.S. congressional delegation confirmed that the president of Belarus was elected by honest and democratic means and is leading a new spirit of development in our country," said Lukashenko's press statement, which was released immediately after the U.S. delegation left Minsk. According to a Belarusian State TV report, the visiting U.S. lawmakers promised to appeal to the U.S. government to lift the U.S. travel ban imposed last month on Lukashenko and other top Belarusian officials over alleged human rights violations as soon as OSCE representatives are granted Belarusian visas for conducting talks on the OSCE mission in Minsk.
Next day, Rep. Weldon furiously denied Lukashenko's summation of the two days of meetings.

"I am appalled that anyone would take such blatant action and put out such outrageous lies," Weldon said in a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Minsk on December 5. "The delegation went to Minsk in good faith and what they have seen is the lowest form of politics." Weldon said he had warned Lukashenko that Belarus must mend ties with the OSCE before the U.S. could consider lifting the travel ban.
Weldon also said he told Lukashenko that a co-operation agreement between the Belarusian parliament and the U.S. Congress, along the lines of similar agreements with other national parliaments, would "only be possible after free and fair elections in Belarus ." The U.S. and the European Union refused to recognize Lukashenko's re-election last year, saying the vote was neither free nor fair. Belarusian officials did not immediately respond to Weldon's statement. (Charter 97, USIS, December 3-5)

BELARUS IS READY TO START TALKS ON OSCE MISSION?

President Lukashenko said that Belarus is ready to start immediate talks with the OSCE to establish a new mandate for its mission in Minsk, the Belarusian State TV reported on December 4. "We are ready to personally invite to our country all those -- even if there are 100 of them -- [empowered] for talks on the mandate of an OSCE mission, on the forms and terms of its presence," Lukashenko said. The Belarusian president made this pledge at a meeting with three U.S. congressmen.

Belarus has agreed to open talks next week on re-opening the OSCE mission in Minsk, Antonio Martins da Cruz, Portuguese Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairman-in-office, told reporters at the OSCE ministerial meeting held in Oporto, Portugal, on December 6.

Martins da Cruz said he had received a letter from Mikhail Khvostov, Belarus Foreign Minister, confirming Belarus's readiness "to open formal negotiations on December 9, 2002, in Vienna to "explore ways to reinforce cooperation and guarantee the presence in Minsk" of an OSCE mission. He said the dispute between the OSCE and Belarus over the mission was "on the way to being settled."

Relations have been extremely tense between Belarus and the pan-European OSCE, which is openly critical of what it sees as repression of political opposition and freedom of speech in the former Soviet republic. Strains worsened in October when Belarus expelled the OSCE's last remaining representative in the country after accusing the mission of interfering in its internal affairs.

Rui Aleixo, coordinator for the OSCE's current Portuguese presidency, told reporters that Belarus had promised to make proposals for a new OSCE mission in Minsk.

Khvostov had "promised to present a new mandate on the future presence of the OSCE" in Belarus, he said. Khvostov's pledge came after talks on December 5 with Martins da Cruz on the sidelines of the Oporto meeting.

Portugal has for months been asking Belarus to come up with a new mandate and Aleixo said Khvostov's pledge was therefore "encouraging." Still, the Oporto meeting is not expected to resolve the thorny issue of Belarus' decision to expulse the OSCE from Minsk after accusing the mission of interfering in its internal affairs. (Belapan, OSCE, December 4-6)

MINSK DENIES ENTRY TO HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORS

The Belarusian authorities denied entry visas to two OSCE experts invited to an international conference titled "International Standards of Democratic Elections and Belarusian Legislation," the conference's organizers said on December 5. Romanian citizen Andrian Moraru from the Institute of Public Policy, an OSCE observer at last year's presidential elections, applied for a visa weeks in advance, but the Belarusian Embassy in Bucharest dragged out a decision on his application and later said it was too late to grant such permission. Moraru also asked a travel agency to get him a Belarusian visa, but the agency was reportedly told at the Embassy that he was on a list of persons barred from traveling to Belarus. Robert Bach from the Prague-based People in Need Foundation believes the Belarusian Embassy in Prague denied him a visa in retaliation for the Czech government's decision to deny a visa to President Lukashenko, who sought to attend the NATO Prague summit last month.

Ales Beliatsky, head of Viasna, the human rights group that organized the conference, said his group invited Moraru and Bach to the conference on legal aspects of elections in Belarus because both men monitored last year's presidential vote in the ex-Soviet republic and were set to attend next spring's local elections. "By refusing visas, officials indicated that they fear that these observers may attend next March's elections," Beliatsky said. Pavel Latushko, Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman, denied that Moraru and Bach had been refused visas, saying they had never formally applied for them. (Viasna, December 5)

COE AWAITS "CLEAR SIGNALS" FROM BELARUS

The Council of Europe believe that it is too early to consider the issue of accepting Belarus into the organization, said Buer-Buciccio, COE deputy secretary general, during a December 6 press-conference held at the central headquarters of the Interfax news agency in Moscow. He reiterated the conditions that need to be fulfilled by Belarus to become a COE member, including freedom of media, independent legislature and judiciary. The Deputy Secretary-General pointed out that the Council of Europe would like to get more concrete signals from Lukashenko about his readiness to engage in democratization." (Interfax, December 6)

DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION BARRED FROM ELECTORAL COMMITTEES

Not a single representative of the democratic opposition parties has managed to get into regional election committees in Grodno, Gomel and Vitebsk regions, three out of six Belarus administrative regions, reported Radio Racyja on December 6. As a result, local elections to be held next spring, have little chance of being free and fair.

In the Grodno Region, the applications of the local members of the Belarusian Popular Front, Liberal-Democratic Party and Helsinki Committee have been rejected by the local authorities. "Their decision wasn't unexpected, local authorities are preparing to repeat the last year's scenario," commented Sergei Malchik, head of the local BPF branch, referring to the 2001 presidential election in Belarus.

In the Gomel Region, the electoral committees were formed in a purely Soviet style - nobody discussed the candidates and local executive authorities had a list of 13 people to be appointed in advance. The voting for this list was unanimous. Svetlana Galdade, representative from the United Civic Party supported by all local democratic parties and a number of NGOs, failed to get into the committee. Galina Belova of the Belarusian Popular Front, who represented democratic forces in the city of Gomel, was not included in the committee either.

In Vitebsk, only representatives of the Liberal-Democratic Party and Communist Party, not included in the democratic opposition, have managed to get into the electoral committees.

In Minsk the authorities allowed only two opposition representatives, Yuri Palchevsky of the Belarusian Popular Front and Mikhail Dashkevich of the Liberal-Democratic Party of Belarus, to join the election committee.

In the Mogilev region, only one LDPB person will participate in the work of the Mogilev regional commission. Out of all public organizations only the official Youth Union, dubbed the "Lukamol" ("Lukashenko's Komsomol") will be represented by its first secretary for Shklov district in the electoral commission. The rest of 11 members are non-partisan, coming from the agricultural sector. The city of Mogilev electoral commission will include a member of the regional branch of the Party of Communists of Belarus and a nominee from a public organization, the Mogilev Association of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

Valery Sivukha, a member of the council of the Mogilev town UCP organization, said that his party nominated into the town's electoral committee an experienced person, who has good grasp of the electoral law and for whom no place could be found in the commission, either. Sivukha underscored that the absence in electoral commission of a wide representation of political parties and public organizations will not increase public confidence in those organizing elections at the local councils of deputies.

Commenting on the impasse, Sergey Alfer, deputy head of the United Civic Party, said: "There has been no significant changes since the [presidential] elections of September 9, 2001. In some regional electoral committees, there are a couple of representatives of opposition organizations, but most of the members are incumbents who have been in these committees for years and know perfectly well how to obey the authorities' orders to ensure the required turn-outs and results. (Pahonya, December 6)

-- MEDIA FREEDOM IN BELARUS --

AUTOPSY PLANNED TO DETERMINE CAUSE OF DEATH OF UKRAINIAN NEWSMAN

Ukrainian and French forensic experts plan to begin an autopsy within a week to determine if a prominent journalist committed suicide, the journalist's colleagues said Monday, December 2. Kolomiyet's body was found hanging from a tree in a forest some 80 kilometers from Minsk on October 30. The Belarusian police buried him as an unidentified person, but exhumed his body on November 20 at the request of Ukrainian investigators. Police have said that results of the Belarus autopsy showed no signs of violence against Kolomiyets. Police concluded that Kolomiyets committed suicide, but his relatives, colleagues and media freedom advocates have said they fear his death could be related to his agency's independent reporting.
Vladimir Boiko of the Kiev prosecutor's office said the experts will have one month to complete their autopsy to determine the cause of death of Kolomiyets, according to Ukrainian News agency, which Kolomiyets himself founded in 1997. His case is the third high-profile journalist death in Ukraine since 2000, when investigative Internet journalist Georgy Gongadze was killed. Last year, TV station director Igor Alexandrov was beaten to death in the eastern Donetsk region. Both crimes remain unsolved. Opposition groups have accused President Leonid Kuchma of involvement in Gongadze's killing, basing their claims on audio recordings made by a former presidential bodyguard, Mykola Melnichenko. Kuchma vehemently denies the charges. Investigators continue working in Belarus and Ukraine to find documents and other evidence that will clarify whether Kolomiyets committed suicide. The French team, expected to arrive Dec. 11, will be headed by Jean Rivoli, who assisted in the high-profile investigation into the death of Gongadze. The Kiev prosecutor's office agreed to invite Rivoli's team at the recommendation of Reporters Without Borders, an international media rights organization, said Maria Sambur, a lawyer at Ukraine's Institute for Mass Information. (Dow Jones Wire, December 4)

-- BROTHER SLAVS --

MINSK KEEPS SELLING OIL AND GAS ASSETS TO RUSSIANS

In continuation of its effort to appease Russian gas suppliers, the Belarusian government sold 11 percent in the Slavneft oil and gas company to Sibneft, which already owns a 13 percent stake together with Tyumen Oil Co. The overall value of the deal announced on December 6 amounted to about $207 million. (Itar-Tass, December 7)

-- INTERNATIONAL NEWS --

MISSING AMBASSADOR TURNS UP, PLANS TO RETURN HOME

Petr Kravchenko, the former Belarusian ambassador to Japan who made headlines by reportedly defying a presidential decree ending his appointment and refusing to return home, told an Itar-Tass correspondent that he does intend to return home on December 13. While not ruling out a possibility that there can be "inspired political provocations against me in Minsk," Amb. Kravchenko reiterated that he "never thought of applying for political asylum in the U.S." The diplomat added that he is now finishing up protocol events in Japan, which have to be completed before his ultimate departure. U.S. Embassy officials also denied media reports that Kravchenko had sought refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. "He was never at the embassy," spokesman Patrick Linehan said.

Kravchenko served as the Belarusian Foreign Minister from 1990 to 1994 before Lukashenko became president. He was elected to the parliament in 1994, and was appointed ambassador to Japan by Lukashenko in 1998. He was removed from his post on November 19 by Lukashenko's order. Last week, Pavel Latushko, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry's spokesman, told reporters that "Petr Kravchenko did not fulfill the Foreign Ministry's order to return to his homeland." He added that Belarusian officials had no information about Kravchenko's whereabouts, but were working with the Japanese Foreign Ministry trying to locate him. However, on Monday afternoon, December 2, Kravchenko personally appeared at the Japan's Foreign Ministry and denied reports he was planning to defect, a ministry spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity. (Itar-Tass, December 2-6)

-- CALENDAR OF EVENTS --

December 13: Belarus: What next? Transition, Reform, Opportunities - an expert conference on Belarus organized by the Federal Trust, an independent think tank committed to enlightening the debate on good governance, at the European Parliament Office in London. For more information please refer to www.fedtrust.co.uk

************************************************************************
The Belarus Update is a weekly news bulletin of the Belarus Human Rights Support Project of the International League for Human Rights (www.ilhr.org) The League, now in its 61st year, is a New York-based human rights NGO in consultative status with the United Nations ECOSOC.

Visit our website for back issues, analysis, and links to news sites and NGOs in Belarus: www.belarusupdate.org For queries on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or other information, contact belarus@ilhr.org

The Belarus project was established to support Belarusian citizens in making their case for the protection of civil society before the international community regarding Alexander Lukashenko's wholesale assault on human rights and the rule of law in Belarus.

************************************************************************

Back