NATO Materials Seized from Local Deputies

UNCLAS MINSK 000666 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PARM PHUM BO SUBJECT: NATO Materials Seized from Local Deputies ¶1. The Lithuanian Embassy, NATO POC in Minsk, informed post on June 21 that they sent a group of twelve elected members of local government councils to NATO headquarters in Brussels for an informational visit June 15-16, organized by NATO's Public Diplomacy Division. Upon their return to Minsk on June 18, plainclothes officials at Minsk's international airport detained the group for over two hours and confiscated all the NATO-related informational material they had received during their visit. Lithuanian DCM Marius Janukonis told Poloff that this material was all open source and available on the NATO web site. The plainclothes officers told the delegation that if they wanted any of their material back, they must file appeals with their local BKGB offices. No other materials or possessions were seized, and no charges were filed. ¶2. Janukonis stated that the Lithuanian Embassy and Brussels are both likely to react publicly to this incident. ¶3. Comment: Several of the local deputies who went on this trip are affiliated with the political opposition, which may have helped provoke the BKGB reaction. However, this is not the first time the GOB has acted to prevent information on NATO from reaching its citizens. In March 2005 the Lithuanian Embassy tried to open a NATO information corner at the library of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences. Despite receiving all the necessary permissions from the Academy and the MFA, at the last minute the Presidential Administration blocked the grand opening and the GOB subsequently changed its mind on allowing such an information center on its soil. KROL