KOZULIN ENDS HUNGER STRIKE, GRATEFUL TO USG

C O N F I D E N T I A L MINSK 001278 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/14/2016 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL BO SUBJECT: KOZULIN ENDS HUNGER STRIKE, GRATEFUL TO USG REF: A. MINSK 1213 ¶B. MINSK 1222 Classified By: Charge Jonathan Moore for reason 1.4 (d). ¶1. (C) On December 13, Irina Kozudina, wife of imprisoned former opposition Belarusian Social Democratic Party "Gramada" (BSDP) Chair and presidential candidate Aleksandr Kozulin, confirmed to Charge that her husband ended the hunger strike that he began on October 20 in protest of the start of President Lukashenko's fraudulently elected third term and in an effort to persuade one of the G-8 member states to raise GOB human rights violations at the United Nations Security Council (refs A and B). ¶2. (C) Kozulina expressed her deepest gratitude and that of her husband for the USG's December 12 efforts to discuss the issue of the human rights situation in Belarus at the UNSC and credited the move with helping Kozulin to end his fast. She also thanked the Embassy for its continuing support for Kozulin and other Belarusians imprisoned for political reasons. Moore