KAZAKHSTAN UNLIKELY TO OPPOSE BELARUS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

UNCLAS ASTANA 001261 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR IO/RHS, DRL/MLGA, EUR/PGI E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PREL UNHCR KZ SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN UNLIKELY TO OPPOSE BELARUS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL CANDIDACY REF: A) State 58056, B) State 63345 1.(SBU) Poloff delivered Ref A demarche to the MFA Department of International Organizations and Security Issues on May 4. Almabek Demessinov, the head of the United Nations section, said that Kazakhstan would consider the USG positions set forth in the demarche. However, Demessinov predicted that Kazakhstan would follow its normal policy of supporting the candidacies of fellow CIS countries. Post notes that Kazakhstan voted against the December 2006 United Nations resolution condemning human rights practices in Belarus. ¶2. (SBU) In addition, the UK Embassy has advised us that their home office believes it will be futile to convince Kazakhstan on this issue, and thus did not instruct their embassy to demarche the government. ¶3. (SBU) Comment: Based on the above and the Government of Kazakhstan's past voting practices on these matters, Post believes that Kazakhstan will support Belarus's candidacy for the Human Rights Council and that it would be counterproductive to pursue the demarche further. End comment. CROWLEY