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 -------------- ¶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 BRATISLAVA 00000961 002 OF 002 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