BELARUS NAMES FOR ASSET FREEZE, TRANCHE 2

C O N F I D E N T I A L MINSK 000690

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/UMB AND INR/B
DEPT PLEASE PASS TO OFAC
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/30/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR PHUM BO
SUBJECT: BELARUS NAMES FOR ASSET FREEZE, TRANCHE 2

REF: MINSK 584

Classified By: AMBASSADOR GEORGE KROL FOR REASONS 1.4 (B, D)


1. (C) Post provides the following information to supplement
that gathered by the Department in consideration of freezing
the assets of certain Belarusian regime officials. This is
the second cable in this series (reftel).


Aleksandr Radkov
--------------


2. (C) Radkov became Minister of Education in August 2003.
He has since used his position for explicitly political
purposes to support the dictatorial regime of Aleksandr
Lukashenko and limit freedom of expression in Belarus. In
July 2004 he signed an order revoking the accreditation of
the European Humanities University, Belarus' only
western-style university. GOB actions and statements made it
clear the regime closed EHU solely for political reasons,
because the university presented a threat to the regime by
teaching its students to think for themselves. In this vein,
Radkov has also instituted the mandatory teaching of a
pro-Lukashenko state ideology in all academic institutions,
and has introduced the teaching of text books (in history,
politics, and even math) whose biased political content
blatantly supports the current regime. Such moves are
designed to ensure Belarus has no political plurality and
that the entire educational system supports the current
regime.


3. (C) In May 2005, Radkov signed and distributed a directive
to all directors of high schools, colleges and universities,
ordering them to expel students who participate in opposition
or unsanctioned political activities. The document,
"Measures to Prevent Students from Being Drawn into Illegal
Activities of a Political Nature," also calls on all schools
to influence the political and ideological development of
Belarusian youth in support of Lukashenko. A large number of
students were subsequently expelled for their pro-opposition
political activities. Exact numbers are impossible to
determine, but Post included information on several in the
2005 Human Rights Report, and knows of at least 14 who have
been expelled since the March 2006 presidential elections for
peacefully demonstrating or collecting signatures in support
of opposition candidates. Others have recently reported
having problems registering for summer classes. Under
Radkov, the Ministry of Education blocked high school
exchanges to the U.S.
in 2005 and 2006.


Vladimir Rusakevich
--------------


4. (C) Rusakevich was appointed Minister of Information in
August 2003. Rusakevich greatly accelerated GOB efforts to
destroy Belarus' independent press. His ministry closed 25
independent newspapers in 2004 alone, and several others in

2005. The Ministry of Information has issued written
warnings to dozens of independent newspapers and brought many
independent papers and journalists to court for trivial
offenses--which often results in massive and disproportionate
fines. Rusakevich personally signs all orders to warn or
close newspapers. His ministry has also blocked access to
printing plants and distribution networks in Belarus, forcing
most of the country's most prominent independent papers to
greatly curtail their circulation and several have gone out
of business. State media face none of these problems. The
OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media announced in 2005
and 2006 that Belarus is not compliant with OSCE standards on
media freedom. Rusakevich's ministry also oversees state
propaganda
efforts, which ODIHR election observers determined played a
serious role in making Belarus' recent elections neither free
nor fair.


Gennady Nevyglas
--------------


5. (C) Nevyglas was appointed Head of the Presidential
Administration in January 2006. Nevyglas headed the National
Security Council from September 2001 to January 2006.
According to GOB organizational charts, the BKGB and Ministry
of Interior both reported directly to NSC head Nevyglas.
Under Nevyglas' supervision, both organizations committed
numerous human rights abuses related to the October 2004
parliamentary elections, including the beating of peaceful
demonstrators and the arrest of numerous opposition figures.
Nevyglas even played a public role in the expulsion of a
Russian journalist who reported on a large opposition
demonstration in June 2003.


6. (C) The NSC is responsible for approving the sale of
weapons abroad. During Nevyglas' tenure at the NSC credible
evidence indicates Belarus sold weapons to a number of
conflict zones and state sponsors of terror, including Saddam
Hussein's Iraq. Although Belarus is very secretive about its
arms trading, Nevyglas' position made him directly
responsible for approving these sales. The proceeds from
these sales do not go to the state budget, but to off-budget
funds controlled by the Presidential Administration. Post
has credibly heard, but cannot prove, that proceeds from
illicit arms sales have enriched senior GOB figures.


Yury Sivakov
--------------


7. (C) Yury Sivakov was Minister of Interior from 1999 to

2000. He subsequently became Minister of Sport and Tourism.
A 2003 report by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe found him to be directly responsible for the
disappearance and presumed murder of four opposition figures
in 1999 and 2000. The report's investigator found that
Sivakov personally signed out the GOB's official execution
pistol on two occasions when three of these people
disappeared. A police official subsequently told the press
this pistol was used to kill these three. The investigator
also found a GOB document linking Sivakov to the murder of a
former Minister of Interior. In December 2001, two
Belarusian police investigators released a report accusing
Sivakov of creating a death squad used to eliminate several
opposition figures. The two investigators subsequently
received political asylum abroad.


Mikhail Orda
--------------


8. (C) Lukashenko created the Belarusian Republican Youth
Union (BRYU),headed by Mikhail Orda, after the 2001
presidential elections. Lukashenko saw that most youth voted
against him and that many joined pro-democracy youth groups.
He therefore created the BRYU, funded by the GOB and by
extorting private businesses, to instill a pro-Lukashenko
ideology among Belarus' youth. Orda's BRYU attracts members
by a combination of threats and incentives. Members receive
discounts from a number of businesses and draft deferrals,
while non-members have trouble enrolling for popular classes
or finding dorm rooms. The BRYU has threatened teachers with
being fired if they do not join the organization and do not
convince enough of their students to join. The GOB uses Orda
and the BRYU to stage pro-government demonstrations and to
publicly protest against western embassies. BRYU
demonstrators are never arrested, unlike pro-democracy
demonstrators who almost always are. In addition to heading
the BRYU, Orda was also
appointed to the upper chamber of parliament, where he has
consistently supported government-backed legislation to
restrict free speech and opposition activity.


9. (C) Orda and the BRYU have played an explicit role
thwarting Belarus' democratic development. During a 2004
national referendum on removing Lukashenko's constitutionally
imposed term limits, Orda and the BRYU held a press
conference at 11 AM, nine hours before polls closed,
announcing their "exit poll" showed Lukashenko's referendum
was overwhelmingly approved. During the 2006 presidential
elections, Orda and the BRYU held their press conference at
10 AM, ten hours before polls closed, announcing that 83.5%
of people voted for Lukashenko. Orda and the BRYU
subsequently declared both elections to have been fully
democratic, even though OSCE observers found that both were
blatantly neither free nor fair. State media heavily
broadcast all these announcements, no doubt influencing the
on-going voting. Orda's statements were clearly part of an
orchestrated government strategy to persuade people that
fraudulent official results were accurate. While his numbers
tracked closely with the official results in b
oth elections, they differed markedly from an independent
Gallup Baltic Surveys exit poll that showed less support for
the 2004 referendum. (In 2006 the government prevented any
independent exit polling.)


Pyotr Miklashevich
--------------


10. (C) Miklashevich has been Prosecutor General since
November 2004. Under his tenure the GOB heavily cracked down
on pro-democracy activists, NGOs, political parties,
newspapers, and trade unions. Miklashevich played a central
role in all these repressive acts. In the immediate
aftermath of the March 2006 presidential elections, the GOB
arrested at least 1,000 peaceful pro-democracy activists.
The highly politicized Belarusian court system, over which
Miklashevich has de facto control, found every single one of
these people guilty, and nearly all spent 7 to 15 days in
jail (a very small minority received fines and some minors
were released). During a March 29 press conference,
Miklashevich threatened a pro-democracy presidential
candidate with jail for leading demonstrations.
Pro-democracy activists regularly receive such short jail
terms for their activities, not just after elections.
Several opposition members are in jail at any given time.


11. (C) In addition to the numerous short-term arrests, the
GOB under Miklashevich's command has secured the convictions
of between 20 and 30 pro-democracy leaders to longer prison
terms. The usual sentence for leading illegal demonstrations
or representing unregistered groups is between 18 and 36
months of corrective labor. Miklashevich told a press
conference on June 16 that his office continues to
investigate an alleged terrorist plot against the GOB.
Miklashevich accused the leaders of a pro-democracy election
observation organization (who have remained in jail since
late February),the leaders of a pro-democracy youth group,
and the leader of a pro-democracy political party of plotting
to plant bombs and of having received hand-to-hand combat
training and chemical weapons training from "Arabs,
Americans, and Georgians." Post is familiar with these
organizations and their work, and views the allegations as
unfounded and absurd.


12. (C) In close cooperation with the Ministry of Justice,
Miklashevich's Procuracy General has prosecuted dozens of
pro-democracy NGOs, independent newspapers, and opposition
political parties in an effort to destroy independent civil
society. Many of these organizations have been closed by the
GOB or forced to pay large fines for often ludicrous
offenses, such as "misusing quotation marks" on their
letterhead. In 2004 alone, working through the Procuracy and
courts, the GOB forced the closure of 24 independent
newspapers.


Oleg Slizhevsky
--------------


13. (C) Slizhevsky has been head of the Ministry of Justice's
Public Associations Department since January 2005. This unit
registers and works with NGOs, political parties and trade
unions. His predecessor reportedly resigned to protest the
regime using this office to close NGOs and political parties.
Slizhevsky publicly bragged that in his previous job,
heading the sub-division that registers NGOs, he personally
deregistered 38 NGOs in 2004, winning every closure case he
brought to court.


14. (C) Under Slizhevsky's close personal command, this
office has worked hard to eliminate any independent civil
society. In 2005 alone, Slizhevsky's office forced the
closure of 80% of the local offices of pro-democracy
political parties, deregistered 68 NGOs, and issued over 400
legal warnings to NGOs. Slizhevky's most common tactic is to
accuse a political party or NGO of not having a legally
registered office (under the GOB's draconian rules, it is
nearly impossible for pro-democracy groups to acquire and
register legal office space. One party that tried to abide
by the rules only succeeded in registering four out of 200
local offices. The GOB holds pro-government groups to a
different standard). In many cases this is the pretext for
Slizhevsky's office to close an organization. In other
cases, the Ministry of Justice hounds pro-democracy groups
with numerous demands, occupying all the groups' time and
resources and preventing them from participating in
pro-democracy work.


Vasily Dementei
--------------


15. (C) Major-General Dementei has been the First Deputy Head
of the BKGB since January 2005, making him number two in an
organization that routinely commits human rights abuses while
combating democratic development. EU contacts claim he is
the "right hand" of BKGB chairman Sukhorenko (reftel),and
plays an active role in all BKGB activities. In October
2005, Dementei presented to parliament a bill designed to
"combat extremism" in Belarus. However, Dementei's lengthy
comments made it clear the bill was aimed against Belarus'
pro-democracy groups. He specifically argued that,
"politicized groups of the Republic of Belarus and some
foreign non-profit organizations, public and religious
figures and the non-state media," were seeking to destabilize
Belarus and overthrow the regime, a claim that contributed to
the climate of fear cited by international observers as a
major flaw of the 2006 election. Belarus' rubberstamp
parliament approved this BKGB bill, and it has subsequently
been used to jail a number o
f pro-democracy activists. In April 2005, Dementei told the
press that the BKGB seized USD 200,000 that western
governments were trying to distribute to the Belarusian
opposition through former MP Sergey Skrebets. Skrebets was
arrested and sentenced to 30 months in prison, ostensibly for
fraud, in a politically motivated trial.


Yury Podebed
--------------


16. (C) Colonel Yury Podobed is commander of the OMON, or
special riot police, in Minsk. OMON troops, and to a lesser
extent Pavlichenko's SOBR and Presidential Security, are
those most often used to disrupt pro-democracy demonstrators
and arrest activists. In the week following the March 2006
presidential elections, Minsk OMON units arrested hundreds of
demonstrators. Numerous activists subsequently reported to
Emboffs and human rights groups that the OMON troops beat and
mistreated them at the time of their arrest. Video footage
shown internationally after the March 25 protest showed OMON
troops beating two middle-aged women and other pro-democracy
activists with their truncheons. Podobed was placed on U.S.
and EU visa blacklists in 2004 after OMON troops under his
command savagely beat a number of pro-democracy activists.
Krol