AMBASSADOR'S RECEPTION IN HONOR OF POLITICAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MINSK 001047

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PREL BO
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S RECEPTION IN HONOR OF POLITICAL
PRISONERS

REF: MINSK 1018

Classified By: Ambassador Karen Stewart for reason 1.4 (d).

Summary
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1. (C) Ambassador hosted her second annual holiday reception
for former political prisoners and the family and friends of
currently jailed opposition activists. In the wake of the
December 3-8 visit to Washington of a senior Belarusian
opposition group, attendees expressed their appreciation of
continued U.S. support for democracy in Belarus. Social
democrat Igor Rynkevich presented Ambassador with a
memorandum announcing the establishment of a "Belarus to
Europe!" campaign to move Belarus towards EU membership, and
calling for continued support from the U.S. and EU in
promoting free and fair elections. End summary.

Intimidating Atmosphere and Unreasonable Prison Conditions
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2. (C) On December 13, Ambassador hosted a reception for
former political prisoners and the families of current
prisoners of conscience at the EMR. This reception was the
second holiday event held in honor of political prisoners.
Tatyana Klimova described to Emboffs the dangerous conditions
at the prison where her husband, former opposition MP and
independent political analyst Andrey Klimov, is held.
According to her account, Klimov lives in a barracks with
almost 200 inmates in cold and overcrowded conditions. Theft
and assault are common and there have been a number of inmate
murders at the facility. Klimov has expressed fear for his
safety since guards are unable or unwilling to control
inmates and confiscate makeshift weapons found on prisoners.
Klimova is permitted to visit her husband only twice a year
at the prison in Mozyr, several hours from Minsk. She has
requested that the Embassy continue its attempts to visit
Klimov. Authorities have denied Klimova's requests to have
her husband moved clo
ser to the capital.

Election Monitoring Difficulties
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3. (C) Former political prisoner Nikolay Astreiko, Chairman
of the election monitoring NGO "Partnership", told Emboffs
that he has discussed with his colleagues tentative plans to
monitor the upcoming parliamentary elections. He
acknowledged that it will be difficult to recruit and train
election monitors who realize that they would likely be
subject to severe repression by the regime. In addition, he
stated that many trained observers feel they have already
clearly documented manifold instances of fraud and that
further monitoring would be pointless. Astreiko himself is
still serving a khimya (work release) sentence, and will
refrain from making specific monitoring plans until he has
served his complete term, which ends this spring.

Business Leaders Speak
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4. (C) Several attendees expressed appreciation for the
recent visit of prominent Belarusian activists with President
Bush and Secretary Rice in Washington. Enira Bronitskaya,
who was a member of the delegation, attended the event and
repeated her thanks to the USG for being included. Mikhail
Marinich, former Deputy Foreign Minister and President of the
pro-entrepreneur group Business Initiative was particularly
effusive in his praise of the delegation's visit, and
expressed hope that receiving such a high level of attention
will encourage the opposition to pull together and gain
momentum. He noted that trade with the Baltic countries is
increasing, but that Lukashenko's anti-entrepreneur policies
have hampered the speed of that growth. (Comment: Marinich's
enthusiasm is important; he was potentially a participant in
a similar delegation earlier in 2007 but did not travel when
opposition leader Aleksandr Milinkevich refused to take part.
Marinich clearly feels no ill will towards us over
Milinkevich's mi
sstep. End comment.) Valeriy Levonevskiy, the President of
the Free Trade Union of Entrepreneurs expressed the hope that
the USG will increase its attention on the entrepreneurs'
movement.

Memorandum To Ambassador
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MINSK 00001047 002 OF 002



5. (SBU) At the beginning of the reception, Deputy Chair of
the Belarusian Social-Democratic Party "Gramada" Igor
Rynkevich presented a memorandum to Ambassador announcing the
establishment of the "Belarus to Europe!" campaign. The
memorandum described the goals of the campaign, which are to
push for compliance with the Copenhagen criteria for EU
membership eligibility, and to promote fair elections.
Specifically, the group urges the UN Security Council to
examine the issue of national security and sovereignty of
Belarus, especially in relation to Russia; calls upon the
Council of Europe to demand the release of all political
prisoners and to secure access for Belarusian citizens to the
European Court of Human Rights; and encourages the EU to help
Belarus implement the Copenhagen criteria for EU membership.
The document also encourages the world community to demand
improved election laws, including a return of authority to
the Parliament, inclusion of opposition representatives in
electoral commissions, gr
anting the opposition access to state media, and making
electoral laws consistent with international standards. The
document was signed by the coordinators of the campaign:
Rynkevich, Irina Kozulina, the wife of jailed presidential
candidate Aleksandr Kozulin, Igor Lednik, Vyacheslav Sivchik,
Yuri Karetnikov, and Pavel Krasovsky. Dmitry Fedaruk, acting
head of Malady Front was also to have signed, but was unable
to do so because of his hospitalization which resulted from
an assault by police during a peaceful demonstration the
night before (reftel). (Note: Post will email Embassy
translation of memorandum to EUR/UMB. End note.)

Comment
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6. (C) As we have experienced ever since we started hosting
events like this in late 2006, former political prisoners and
their families expressed genuine gratitude for the USG's
continued support of their fight for democracy in Belarus.
These events presented an opportunity for them to discuss
their views not only with Embassy personnel, but also with
other activists whom they seldom have a chance to meet. We
continue our efforts to support political prisoners; we are
attending several trials (reported septel) and have also
renewed requests -- unlikely to be granted -- to visit
Kozulin and Klimov in prison.
STEWART