FREEDMON TO TRAVEL FREELY IN THEORY ONLY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MINSK 001348

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM BO
SUBJECT: FREEDMON TO TRAVEL FREELY IN THEORY ONLY



1. Summary: In the past month, the GOB has taken a series
of steps - including detentions at airports and borders,
seizures at customs, travel bans, and refusals to issue exit
travel permits - to prevent opposition leaders and activists
from traveling abroad freely. The GOB's actions indicate a
trend of keeping tighter control over those associated with
the opposition in the lead-up to the 2006 presidential
elections. End summary.

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Some Experienced Problems at the Border
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2. On October 27, Belarusian customs officials prevented
Belarusian Social Democratic Party "Hramada" (BSDP) leader
Aleksandr Kozulin from boarding a plane to Frankfurt.
Kozulin was traveling to Denmark and Sweden to participate
in two conferences on October 28-30. The authorities
searched Kozulin when he arrived at the airport but allowed
him to proceed when they did not find a reason to prevent
him from leaving. When Kozulin tried to board the plane,
however, authorities forced him to return to the airport
terminal and confiscated items from his bags including
invitations to the conferences, a letter to presidential
opposition candidate Aleksandr Milinkevich and general
information about the BSDP. The authorities made him wait
several hours while they wrote up the incident, thereby
causing Kozulin to miss his flight. Kozulin commented the
authorities conducted the search under the "precedent of
open arbitrariness with a poorly disguised political
motive." [Note: Post does not believe Kozulin has
subsequently tried to leave the country. End Note.]


3. The same day, customs officials seized written material
from United Civic Party (UCP) leader Anatoly Lebedko upon
his arrival to the Minsk airport from Strasbourg, where he
had met with members of the European Parliament. The
authorities confiscated Lebedko's travel itineraries and
information in English on the recent National Congress of
Democratic Forces and biographies of presidential opposition
candidates. Lebedko defended his right to have these
documents, and the absurdity of their seizure, since the
information was easily available on the internet and was
neither secret nor subversive. He pointed out that
officials from the Belarusian embassy were even at some of
the meetings he attended and could have passed the
information the authorities confiscated to concerned
agencies in Belarus. [Note: Leader of the Belarusian
Popular Front Vintsuk Vyachorka, who in the past has been
repeatedly stopped and searched by authorities when crossing
the border, traveled back to Belarus with Lebedko.
Vyachorka, however, experienced no trouble with the
authorities at customs. He added sarcastically, "I am even
a bit disappointed." End Note.]


4. On October 31, Belarusian guards at the Polish border
detained former leader of the Union of Belarusian Poles
(UBP) Anzhelika Borys for several hours before finally
allowing her to pass to Poland. [Note: Anzhelika Borys was
the democratically elected leader of the UBP, who was
removed in GOB-managed elections. End Note.] At first, the
authorities invalidated the exit travel stamp in her
passport, which is a necessary requirement for travel
abroad. Eventually the authorities reinstated her exit
travel stamp and allowed her to continue on her way.

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Some Cannot Even Get to the Border
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5. On October 28, the Minsk City Council of Lawyers denied
human rights lawyer Vera Stremkovskaya permission to travel
to Tbilisi from November 2-5 for an OSCE conference on
independent Bar associations. That same day, the council
adopted a resolution forbidding all lawyers to travel abroad
for a period of one month. Previously the council denied
permission for Stremkovskaya to travel to an international
conference in Korea after she spoke in Warsaw about the need
for judicial system reforms and guarantees for independent
Bar associations to defend human rights in Belarus.


6. On October 12, a Belarusian court rejected UBP
activist Andrzej Poczobut's appeal of a GOB travel ban.
On July 27, a Grodno court banned him from traveling
abroad until he paid the remainder of his BYR 5.1
million [USD 2,380] fine. [Note: This amount is
equivalent to an average annual salary. End Note.]
Poczobut still owed BYR 500,000 [USD 232], but was not
able to make the next payment since he was serving a
short jail sentence. Since Poczobut considered the
remaining amount to be negligible, he hoped the court

MINSK 00001348 002 OF 002


would remove the travel ban. He regarded the courts
decision as a "politically motivated...campaign of
pressure on those UBP members who don't recognize the
results of the [GOB mandated UBP] repeat sixth
convention." [Comment: The GOB has vastly increased the
use of large fines in recent months, and in several
cases has denied pro-democracy activists the right to
travel abroad for non-payment of these fines. End
Comment.]


7. On October 4, the Belarusians Constitutional Court ruled
to keep the country's foreign travel permit system in place.
If Belarusian citizens wish to travel abroad, they must pay
a fee of BYR 127,500 [USD 60] to receive a five-year travel
permit. The court had originally recommended to annul the
permit system by January 1, 2006 but later revoked its
recommendation after the government protested. On October
28, the department of Passports and Visas Services denied
Zubr human rights coordinator Iryna Toustsik an exit permit
stamp in her passport because the Belarusian KGB wanted to
ask her some questions. Toustsik linked the denial and
subsequent inquiry to her opposition activities.

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Comment
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8. Freedom of movement is guaranteed by the Belarusian
constitution. Although in most cases activists only face
increased scrutiny and more thorough checks at the border,
in recent months the GOB has increasingly interfered with
the ability of pro-democracy activists to travel abroad, and
in many cases even within the country. The GOB's recent
actions indicate a new and alarming trend to exert more
control over the opposition in the lead up to next year's
presidential elections.

KROL