Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06MINSK1272
2006-12-12 13:47:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Minsk
Cable title:  

EMBASSY MINSK WEEKLY POL/ECON REPORT - December 8, 2006

Tags:  PGOV PREL PHUM ECON BO 
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MINSK 001272 

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM ECON BO
SUBJECT: EMBASSY MINSK WEEKLY POL/ECON REPORT - December 8, 2006

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MINSK 001272

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SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM ECON BO
SUBJECT: EMBASSY MINSK WEEKLY POL/ECON REPORT - December 8, 2006


1. The following are brief items of interest compiled by Embassy
Minsk.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ELECTIONS
--------------

- Nomination Stage in Local Elections Over (para. 2)
- Ten Members of BPC Withdraw From Local Elections (para. 3)

CIVIL SOCIETY
--------------

- Milinkevich Urges G8 Leaders to Save Kozulin's Life (para. 4)
- Police Briefly Detain Opposition Leader Milinkevich (para. 5)
- Charge Against Human Rights Defender Dropped (para. 6)
- Landlord Gives Private Paper Two Days to Move Out (para. 7)
- Polish Priests and Nuns Forced to Leave Belarus (para. 8)
- Catholic Hunger Strikers Allowed to Build Church (para. 9)
- Minsk Hare Krishna Community Forced Out of Office (para. 10)
- Almost 3,000 Corruption Offenses Detected in Belarus (para. 11)

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
--------------

- International Helsinki Federation Appeals to E.U. (para.12)
- UNDP/GEF to Help Reduce CO2 Emissions in Belarus (para. 13)
- NATO's Allied Command Operations Visit Belarus (para. 14)
- EU to Consider Again GSP Suspension for Belarus (para. 15)

- QUOTE OF THE WEEK (para. 16)

--------------
ELECTIONS
--------------


2. Nomination Stage in Local Elections Over

On December 4, Central Election Commission Secretary Nikolay
Lozovik stated that the nomination stage in the elections for
local councils is complete with 24,397 people having applied as
candidates for 22,658 seats. The deadline for election
commissions to verify the application papers is December 14.
Nominees who receive a candidate's certificate will then be able
to start their campaigns. According to Lozovik, each of the
candidates for village councils will receive USD 14.50 for their
campaigns; the candidates for district and city soviets, USD 58;
and, the candidates for regional councils and the Minsk City
council, USD 116.


3. Ten Members of BPC Withdraw From Local Elections

On December 8, independent media reported that ten members of the
Belarusian party of Communists (BPC) in the Gomel region have
decided not to run in January's local elections. They claimed
that they found it "immoral" to run in the election as not a

single opposition party member has been included on any district
election commissions.

--------------
CIVIL SOCIETY
--------------


4. Milinkevich Urges G8 Leaders to Save Kozulin's Life

On December 7, Belarusian opposition leader Aleksandr Milinkevich
sent an open letter to the heads of state of France, Russia, the
United States, and Germany urging them to "do everything possible
to save the life of Aleksandr Kozulin and release all political
prisoners in Belarus." Milinkevich recalled that Kozulin
promised to end his protest as soon as at least one G8 nation
expressed an intention to put Belarus' human rights situation on
the United Nations Security Council agenda.


5. Police Briefly Detain Opposition Leader Milinkevich

On December 4, police in Beloozyorsk, Brest region briefly
detained the car of the leader of Belarus' united democratic
forces Aleksandr Milinkevich. According to Milinkevich spokesman
Pavel Mozheiko, the police explained that they had received an
anonymous phone tip that the car was being used to transport and
distribute narcotics and alcohol. Police examined the car and
released Milinkevich one hour later. Mozheiko noted that police
interrogated Milinkevich about his political activities in the
region, not about the drug allegations. Milinkevich was
collecting nomination signatures for local opposition activists.


6. Charge Against Human Rights Defender Dropped

On December 7, a Minsk judge dismissed the administrative case

MINSK 00001272 002 OF 003


against human rights defender Oleg Volchek because the statute of
limitation had expired. On September 3, customs officers found
several copies of a book on the 2006 presidential elections in
Volchek's luggage to Germany this past September. The books
allegedly contained materials that "could cause damage to the
country's political interests." Volchek was tried in absentia
earlier for attempting to bring the book to the Netherlands this
past October and fined USD 725.


7. Landlord Gives Private Paper Two Days to Move Out

On December 6, the Vitebsk-based independent newspaper Vitebskiy
Kuryer received official word from the building administration
that the newspaper staff had until December 8 to vacate its
office. The building administration declared that the office
lease is "null and void," given the paper's ongoing legal dispute
with the local authorities. Separately, on December 8, the
Ministry of Information delivered a written warning to Vitebskiy
Kuryer editor Vladimir Bazan for having failed to register the
paper's legal address.


8. Polish Priests and Nuns Forced to Leave Belarus

On December 6, independent media reported that seven Polish
priests and five Polish nuns working in the Roman Catholic
Diocese of Grodno have to leave Belarus by the end of the year.
The Committee on Religious and National Affairs refused to renew
their work permits this past August citing the need to provide
Belarusian graduates of the Roman Catholic seminaries in Grodno
and Pinsk with jobs. According to a Grodno diocese priest Antony
Khanko, approximately 30 local Roman Catholic communities do not
have clergy despite the fact that graduates of the seminaries are
annually conferred. Approximately 180 priests, including 72
foreign nationals, currently work in local communities.


9. Catholic Hunger Strikers Allowed to Build Church

On December 6, Grodno Regional Executive Committee chair Vladimir
Savchenko sent a letter to the head of the Grodno Diocese
Aleksandr Kashkevich allowing the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of
Mercy community to build a church. The priest of the Roman
Catholic community Aleksandr Shemet stated that the protestors
would start taking food but stressed that the end of the strike
did not mean an end to struggle against the "oppression of
Christian churches." Shemet and 11 parishioners went on a hunger
strike on December 1 in protest against the local authorities'
refusal to permit them to construct a church.


10. Minsk Hare Krishna Community Forced Out of Office

On December 4, the Minsk-based community of the International
Society for Krishna Consciousness is facing closure over the
absence of a registered legal address. The Hare Krishna
community has been looking for an office to register as its legal
address for two years since they were ordered to leave the office
they had been renting. Presently, there are eight Hare Krishna
communities operating in the country.


11. Almost 3,000 Corruption Offenses Detected in Belarus

On December 5, Prosecutor General Pyotr Miklashevich reported
that prosecutorial agencies detected approximately 3,000
corruption-related offenses from January to October 2006. Almost
one-third of these corruption crimes were connected with bribery.
According to Miklashevich, the prosecutors office drafted a 2007-
2010 anti-corruption program aimed at reducing corruption.

--------------
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
--------------


12. International Helsinki Federation Appeals to E.U.

On December 6, International Helsinki Federation Executive
Director Aaron Rhodes appealed to the European Union and the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to help the
Belarusian Helsinki Committee and all human rights defenders in
Belarus. Rhodes noted that without human rights groups, the
government would face no civil control or accountability in its
quest to gain absolute power.


13. UNDP/GEF to Help Reduce CO2 Emissions in Belarus

On December 5, the UNDP and Global Environment Facility (GEF)
project director Vladimir Voitekhovich predicted at a seminar in
Minsk that carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 1.08
million tons in Belarus over 15 years thanks to the use of
biomass for heating in Belarus. Belarus is one of the countries
where annual forest growth exceeds annual harvest, thus making it
ideal for such a project.


MINSK 00001272 003 OF 003



14. NATO's Allied Command Operations Visit Belarus

On December 4, a delegation of NATO's Allied Command Operations
arrived in Minsk on a four-day visit to inform Belarusian defense
officials about exercise plans, the involvement of partner
countries in operations, and the deployment of peacekeeping units
with communication and computer equipment. The NATO officials
are also expected to discuss prospects for cooperation with
Belarus in operations conducted as part of the Partnership for
Peace program.


15. EU to Consider Again GSP Suspension for Belarus

On December 5, the expert committee under the European Commission
approved the proposal to temporarily suspend Belarus' benefits
under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). The approval
could clear the way for the EU Foreign Ministers to formally
announce in December the plan to impose tariffs on imports of
Belarusian wood, textiles and minerals in summer 2007. The
withdrawal of GSP benefits would result in the loss of several
hundred million dollars for Belarus.

--------------
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
--------------


16. On December 5, Belarusian opposition leader Aleksandr
Milinkevich announced that he will nominate imprisoned opposition
activist Aleksandr Kozulin for the 2007 Martin Ennals Award for
Human Rights Defenders, which is presented to individuals or
organizations who have displayed exceptional courage in combating
human rights violations and offered the following observation:

"The courage and vigor that Aleksandr Kozulin shows in his
struggle for his rights is admirable. His hunger strike is today
a symbol of all Belarusians' aspirations to live in a free and
democratic state. The entire world should know of it. This
award will above all be a strong message of the international
community to the Belarusian regime that it should start releasing
political prisoners."

Moore