INSTRUCTIONS: BELARUS POLITICAL PRISONER

UNCLAS STATE 197404

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: UNSC BO
SUBJECT: INSTRUCTIONS: BELARUS POLITICAL PRISONER
KOZULIN'S HUNGER STRIKE


1. (SBU) Action Request: USUN is instructed to raise the
issue of the hunger strike of Belarus political prisoner
Kozulin under "other matters" during the Security Council,s
informal consultations on Monday, December 11, and to make a
statement to the press following the consultations, drawing
on the points in para 3 below. End Action Request.


2. (U) Background: Former Presidential candidate and
political prisoner Alexander Kozulin has now passed the
50-day mark in his hunger strike to protest the rule of
President Lukashenko and the human rights situation in
Belarus. He has said repeatedly that the only way he will
stop his hunger strike is if the U.S. or one of the G-8
countries announced its intention to bring up the issue in
the UN Security Council. We understand that Kozulin is now
close to death. Since he began his hunger strike, the UNGA
Third Committee adopted a resolution condemning the human
rights situation in Belarus. President Bush made a strong
statement at the NATO meeting in Riga condemning the Belarus
regime and calling for it to release all political prisoners.
Embassy Minsk has issued many public statements putting the
onus on the Belarus government, not the West, for Kozulin,s
fate. On December 7, the Belarus Democracy Reauthorization
Act of 2006 passed in the U.S. House of Representatives,
sponsored by Representatives Lantos and Smith.


3. (U) Begin points.

-- Today, the United States would like to call the
Council,s attention to the tragic situation of Alexander
Kozulin, a former Presidential candidate and now political
prisoner in Belarus, who began a hunger strike over 50 days
ago in protest of the regime of President Lukashenko and the
human rights situation in Belarus. We understand that his
health now is now extremely precarious.

-- It is tragic that the oppression of the Belarus
government has forced Belarusians to take such drastic
measures to express their views.

-- The Lukashenko regime,s politically-motivated sentencing
and treatment of Kozulin continues a disturbing pattern by
the authorities to intimidate civil society activists and to
further erode the democratic process in Belarus.

-- President Bush, speaking in Riga, Latvia, on November 28,
described Belarus as "a place where peaceful protesters are
beaten and opposition leaders are 'disappeared' by the agents
of a cruel regime. The existence of such oppression in our
midst offends the conscience of Europe, and it offends the
conscience of America. We have a message for the people of
Belarus: The vision of a Europe whole, free, and at peace
includes you -- and we stand with you in your struggle for
freedom."

-- The United States of America calls upon the Belarusian
authorities to free all persons being held on politically
motivated charges.

End points.
RICE