FORMER POLITICAL PRISONERS SEEK SUPPORT, MAY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MINSK 000029

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/11/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM BO
SUBJECT: FORMER POLITICAL PRISONERS SEEK SUPPORT, MAY
RETURN TO POLITICAL LIFE

REF: A. 05 MINSK 661


B. 06 MINSK 791

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

Summary
--------------


1. (C) Charge met with two recently released Belarusian
political prisoners who remained politically engaged despite
their isolation and substandard conditions. While
downplaying the significance of Belarus' upcoming local
elections and opposition congress, both emphasized the need
for more pressure by the international community on the
Lukashenko regime. Although they seemed uncertain about
their immediate plans, both alluded to resuming some form of
political activism. End summary.

Background
--------------


2. (C) This cable includes information about Charge's
December 27 meeting with former opposition MP Andrey Klimov,
whom a Minsk court had sentenced in June 2005 to 18 months of
"khimya" (internal exile) for alleged bank fraud, and
December 28 meeting with independent election monitor Timofey
Dranchuk, who was sentenced in August 2006 to one year in
prison for running an unregistered organization (reftels).

Prison Conditions
--------------


3. (C) Both Dranchuk and Klimov ridiculed the authorities
for portraying their "early releases" as amnesty since both
had nearly completed their politically motivated sentences
with pre-trial time served. However, they avoided harsh
criticism of their conditions during their incarcerations.
Released on December 26, Dranchuk noted that his conditions
in the Minsk Number One Correction Facility were much better
in terms of medical care, climate control, lighting,
sanitation, and quality of food and water than those during
his pre-trial detention at the filthy and overcrowded
Volodarskogo and BKGB jails. Contrasting his imprisonment
with Solzhenitsyn's, Dranchuk described the attitude of the
general prison population as "very sympathetic" toward him
and other political prisoners.


4. (C) Released on December 22, Klimov observed that khimya
resembled prison only at night when he slept in 10-person
barracks with unsanitary communal bathrooms and bunk beds.
(Note: Klimov had previously served four years in prison for
using his construction company allegedly to defraud the Minsk
City government.) Largely unsupervised while working as a
street cleaner during the day, Klimov was able to elude
detention authorities to participate in the October 2005
Congress of Democratic Forces in Minsk. Throughout their
post-trial incarcerations, Dranchuk and Klimov closely
followed Belarus' political and economic situation through
frequent correspondence with opposition activists and
listening to independent radio.

Former Political Prisoners Wax Political
--------------


5. (C) Klimov avoided discussing the opposition's plans for
Belarus' January 14 local elections and the coalition's
possible reconfiguration and election of a single leader at
the second opposition congress planned for February or March.
Instead, he tended to dwell on U.S.-Russian relations and on
whom the U.S. would support as opposition leader. When
Charge answered that the choice of leader was solely the
decision of the opposition, Klimov argued that the U.S. has
an "obligation" to take a more active role in choosing a
leader since it continues to fall short in honoring its
Clinton-era commitments to press the Lukashenko regime for
political reform and release of political prisoners.


6. (C) While lauding past U.S. efforts to support
independent election monitoring organizations, Dranchuk
dismissed the importance of the 2007 local elections, calling
them fait accompli. He also downplayed the opposition
congress as "addressing the ambitions of a very small
circle." Dranchuk maintained that the international
community should strengthen its efforts to press the regime
for the release of political prisoners and highlight the
plight of Belarus' general prison population, the majority of
whose legal cases, according to Dranchuk, had involved

MINSK 00000029 002 OF 002


serious civil rights violations by authorities.

Plans for the Future
--------------


7. (C) Neither Dranchuk nor Klimov were firm in their future
plans and both communicated their need for time away from
politics. Nevertheless, Klimov did not rule out his
participation in the upcoming opposition congress and
possibly supporting opposition leader and former presidential
candidate Aleksandr Milinkevich. Ironically, despite his
insistence that his future activism would likely be less
politically focused, at meeting's end Dranchuk mentioned
several recent high-level opposition contacts and presented
Charge with his business card that read "Movement of Andrey
Klimov."

Comment
--------------


8. (C) While Dranchuk seemed pensive and even subdued,
Klimov's reputation for being charismatic and boisterously
idiosyncratic held true throughout the meeting. Despite
these differences in demeanor, many of their sentiments not
only echoed each other but also reflected the current mood of
much of the opposition writ large; that is, resignation
regarding the outcome of local elections and the continuing
need for strong U.S. and EU action.
Stewart