MILINKEVICH IMPRESSES IN BRATISLAVA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BRATISLAVA 000961

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/12/2016
TAGS: BO KDEM LO PGOV PHUM PREL
SUBJECT: MILINKEVICH IMPRESSES IN BRATISLAVA

Classified By: DCM Lawrence R. Silverman for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (SBU) Summary. Belarussian opposition leader and 2006
presidential candidate Alexander Milinkevic visited
Bratislava December 9, calling for continued support from the
Slovak government and civil society. Milinkevic made a
strong impression in his meetings with Slovak government
officials, opposition politicians, journalists, and the
diplomatic community, which included a breakfast with
Ambassador Vallee at the residence. The GOS made firm
commitments to support the Belarussian democratic movement,
but Milinkevich was not able to meet with Prime Minister
Fico, which makes it difficult to assess the full impact of
his visit at this time. We consider the visit a part of MFA,
NGO, and our own efforts to bring PM Fico around on this
issue. End Summary.

Milinkevich Impresses
--------------


2. (C) During his one-day stopover in Bratislava en route to
the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg to receive the
Sakharov Prize, Milinkevich impressed all of his audiences
with his presence, intelligence, and warmth. In his
breakfast with Ambassador Vallee, Milinkevich stressed that
he has thus far avoided a lengthy political imprisonment
specifically due to pressure applied by the US, EU and the
broader international community. His wife, Inna Kulei, spoke
of her desire for the US to provide scholarships for
Belarussian students active in opposition movements, and also
emphasized the need to provide support for families of
opposition members who have been stripped of their jobs.
Later that day, in a luncheon organized by the British High
Commission, Milinkevich elaborated further on his ideas for
promoting democratization in his country, placing primary
emphasis on economic and cultural ties with Belarus. This
view closely aligned with those stated in a EU non-paper on
Belarus policy circulating that weekend.

GOS Says the Right Things
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3. (SBU) Milinkevich's schedule, organized by the Pontis
Foundation, included two primary sessions with the
government. In the morning, he met and subsequently held a
press conference with Boris Zala (Smer),Chairman of the
Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, and Laszlo Nagy
(SMK),Chairman of the Human Rights Committee. In the
afternoon, Milinkevich met with Foreign Minister Jan Kubis.
Zala and Nagy, despite coming from parties with an
antagonistic relationship, appeared to view the Belarus issue
eye-to-eye. In the joint press conference they promised to
issue resolutions from their respective committees calling
for the release of political prisoners in Belarus, and urged
FM Kubis to issue a resolution in the UN Security Council
calling for the release of political prisoner Alexander
Kozulin. We suggested to Pontis that they try to get
Parliamentary Speaker Pavol Paska -- who is close to Fico --
to formally endorse the resolution.


4. (C) In the afternoon meeting, FM Kubis, saying he was
speaking on behalf of PM Fico, reiterated GOS support for
Belarussian civil society. He committed to continue
providing Official Development Assistance (ODA) for Slovak
NGOs working in Belarus and said that he would propose to the
EU the creation of a specific fund for democratization in
Belarus. (Note: Slovakia has provided 10 million SKK
(380,000 USD) for democratization in Ukraine and Belarus for
each of the past three years, but neither is a multi-year
priority country for Slovak Aid, the ODA unit at MFA.
Consequently democratization assistance for these countries
must be approved from limited discretionary ODA funds on a
yearly basis. Kubis' statement is significant because as of
last Friday SlovakAid could not commit to whether these funds
would be allocated to Ukraine and Belarus again in 2007. End
Note.) The UNSC proposal from Zala and Nagy was not
discussed in the meeting. Stefan Rozkopal, MFA Director for
CIS and the Balkans, and Lenka Surotchak, Director of the
Pontis Foundation, were present at the meeting and expressed
to Emboff their satisfaction with the results. Rozkopal
(please protect) told us that he was relieved that Kubis
sounded firm in his support.

Accomplishments and Missed Opportunities
--------------


5. (C) The commitments to Belarus made by the Slovak
Parliament and the MFA are encouraging, especially
considering that the new government has been reticent to
raise its voice on Belarus, and that PM Fico's only known
connection to the country is his friendly visit to Lukashenko
in 2003. Milinkevich also did well to communicate a
consistent message to the media, appealing for help from the

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Slovak government and people, even though media coverage of
the visit was quite limited, especially on television.
Unfortunately, however, the lack of a meeting between
Milinkevich and the Prime Minister may leave some of the
visit's key accomplishments in a fragile state. In
organizing Milinkevich's program, the Pontis Foundation
assumed that getting the PM to agree to a meeting with
Milinkevich was a bridge too far, and did not try, organizing
instead meetings with leading KDH and SDKU figures, including
former PM Dzurinda. They now realize they should have
attempted to get the meeting to help force Fico to take a
stand. This oversight was compounded when leading opposition
figures friendly with Pontis, including former FM Eduard
Kukan (SDKU) blasted the government in the press for not
meeting with Milinkevich "at the highest levels." Fico tends
to recoil strongly when he feels that opposition parties and
the NGO community are working together against him on
international issues, so some fences may need to be mended in
order to ensure that the GOS continues to move forward in
support of democracy in Belarus. To this end, Ambassador
Vallee will raise the Milinkevich visit and Belarus when he
sees the Prime Minister on December 13.

VALLEE