ONE MORE BELARUSIAN OPPOSITION LIST FOR PARLIAMENT

UNCLAS VILNIUS 000220

SIPDIS

AMEMBASSY MINSK SENDS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR BO
SUBJECT: ONE MORE BELARUSIAN OPPOSITION LIST FOR PARLIAMENT

Thanks Embassy for Kozulin Advocacy
--------------


1. (SBU) Charge and A/DCM met April 9 with opposition politician
Sergey Skrebets. Skrebets, who formerly served as counsel to
political prisoner and former presidential candidate Aleksandr
Kozulin, thanked the Charge for the Embassy's work to gain Kozulin's
freedom. He told Charge of a draft letter of thanks addressed to
the Department which Kozulin's current lawyer intends to pass to
Kozulin for his signature during a prison visit April 26 (but did
not share a copy with us). Though pleased with USG advocacy on
Kozulin's behalf, Skrebets told Charge that he held out no hope that
Kozulin would be released before parliamentary elections tentatively
scheduled for September 28. [Note: Kozulin is not a member of BSDG,
and may not agree with the idea that Skrebets is representing him at
this time. End note.]

Own List for Parliament, Candidacy for President
-------------- ---


2. (SBU) Skrebets, who is one of the leaders of Stanislav
Shushkevich's Belarusian Social Democratic Gramada (BSDG),told
Charge that his party had formed its own slate of candidates for
2008 elections to the Belarusian legislature. He provided Charge a
letter requesting assistance for the campaign. BSDG will run
candidates in 60 of Belarus' 110 districts. In answer to a question
from the Charge on coordination with the United Democratic Forces'
(UDF) unified candidate list, Skrebets noted that only two of sixty
BSDG candidates were on the UDF list as well; 58 had been nominated
by his party alone. He said that BSDG had hoped to field its own
candidates in all 110 of Belarus' electoral districts but some party
members who could have made strong candidates asked not to be
nominated for fear of losing their jobs.


3. (SBU) As for future plans, Skrebets told Charge that he would be
BSDG's candidate for president in 2011. According to Skrebets, in
addition to the BSDG, his candidacy has the support of the
Kalinovskiy Youth Movement, the Respublika faction and the Chernobyl
liquidators' NGO. As BSDG's candidate, Skrebets said that he plans
to visit the U.S. in May or June of 2008 and requested Embassy
support to set up meetings in the Department, including with DRL A/S
David Kramer. Charge responded that the Embassy would communicate
his desire for meetings in the Department and would help to arrange
such meetings in the event that he travels to Washington.

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


4. (SBU) It is unfortunate that a third opposition group plans to
run a slate of candidates in this September's parliamentary polls.
As post has indicated to interlocutors on many occasions, multiple
lists not only force candidates to contend among themselves for
scarce resources, but also divide the opposition electorate and make
it harder to substantiate claims of election falsification by the
regime.

Moore
Cloud