OSCE PERMANENT COUNCIL: RESPONSE TO BELARUSIAN

UNCLAS STATE 128748

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREL KDEM OSCE BO
SUBJECT: OSCE PERMANENT COUNCIL: RESPONSE TO BELARUSIAN
FOREIGN MINISTER MARTYNOV


1. (U) Post is authorized to present the following statement
at the December 17 Permanent Council meeting in Vienna,
should Belarusian Foreign Minister Martynov address the
Council.

BEGIN TEXT:

Thank you, Madam Chair.

The United States welcomes Foreign Minister Martynov to the
Permanent Council. We listened with interest to his
presentation.

We strongly support the extension of the mandate of the OSCE
Office in Minsk and believe it can continue to do valuable
work across all three dimensions of security. We believe
that the flexibility and dynamic action of OSCE field
missions is one of the organization's greatest strengths, and
are firmly convinced that field missions should be free to
develop and undertake programs within their mandates, without
having individual projects micro-managed.

In August, Assistant Secretary of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs Philip H. Gordon traveled to Minsk, where he
engaged the Belarusian government about prospects for working
together to improve bilateral relations between our two
countries. We have made it clear that such improvements can
come only through actions by the government of Belarus to
improve respect for the basic human rights and democratic
aspirations of the Belarusian people. Unfortunately,
Belarusian authorities' continued pressure against civil
society, including arbitrary harassment of independent
activists, denials of registration of NGOs, and recent
violent dispersals of peaceful public gatherings demonstrate
that lack of progress.

We thank you, Mr. Minister, for your presence here today, and
hope that you view our comments in the spirit of cooperation
in which they were intended.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

END TEXT.
CLINTON