VZCZCXRO2973
RR RUEHAST RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHLA RUEHMRE RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHSK #1272/01 3461347
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 121347Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY MINSK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5427
INFO RUCNOSC/ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY COOPERATION IN EUROPE
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MINSK 001272 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM ECON BO
SUBJECT: EMBASSY MINSK WEEKLY POL/ECON REPORT - December 8, 2006 
 
¶1.  The following are brief items of interest compiled by Embassy 
Minsk. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
ELECTIONS 
--------- 
 
- Nomination Stage in Local Elections Over (para. 2) 
- Ten Members of BPC Withdraw From Local Elections (para. 3) 
 
CIVIL SOCIETY 
------------- 
 
- Milinkevich Urges G8 Leaders to Save Kozulin's Life (para. 4) 
- Police Briefly Detain Opposition Leader Milinkevich (para. 5) 
- Charge Against Human Rights Defender Dropped (para. 6) 
- Landlord Gives Private Paper Two Days to Move Out (para. 7) 
- Polish Priests and Nuns Forced to Leave Belarus (para. 8) 
- Catholic Hunger Strikers Allowed to Build Church  (para. 9) 
- Minsk Hare Krishna Community Forced Out of Office (para. 10) 
- Almost 3,000 Corruption Offenses Detected in Belarus (para. 11) 
 
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 
----------------------- 
 
- International Helsinki Federation Appeals to E.U. (para.12) 
- UNDP/GEF to Help Reduce CO2 Emissions in Belarus (para. 13) 
- NATO's Allied Command Operations Visit Belarus (para. 14) 
- EU to Consider Again GSP Suspension for Belarus (para. 15) 
 
- QUOTE OF THE WEEK (para. 16) 
 
--------- 
ELECTIONS 
--------- 
 
¶2.   Nomination Stage in Local Elections Over 
 
On December 4, Central Election Commission Secretary Nikolay 
Lozovik stated that the nomination stage in the elections for 
local councils is complete with 24,397 people having applied as 
candidates for 22,658 seats.  The deadline for election 
commissions to verify the application papers is December 14. 
Nominees who receive a candidate's certificate will then be able 
to start their campaigns.  According to Lozovik, each of the 
candidates for village councils will receive USD 14.50 for their 
campaigns; the candidates for district and city soviets, USD 58; 
and, the candidates for regional councils and the Minsk City 
council, USD 116. 
 
¶3.   Ten Members of BPC Withdraw From Local Elections 
 
On December 8, independent media reported that ten members of the 
Belarusian party of Communists (BPC) in the Gomel region have 
decided not to run in January's local elections.  They claimed 
that they found it "immoral" to run in the election as not a 
single opposition party member has been included on any district 
election commissions. 
 
------------- 
CIVIL SOCIETY 
------------- 
 
¶4.   Milinkevich Urges G8 Leaders to Save Kozulin's Life 
 
On December 7, Belarusian opposition leader Aleksandr Milinkevich 
sent an open letter to the heads of state of France, Russia, the 
United States, and Germany urging them to "do everything possible 
to save the life of Aleksandr Kozulin and release all political 
prisoners in Belarus."  Milinkevich recalled that Kozulin 
promised to end his protest as soon as at least one G8 nation 
expressed an intention to put Belarus' human rights situation on 
the United Nations Security Council agenda. 
 
¶5.   Police Briefly Detain Opposition Leader Milinkevich 
 
On December 4, police in Beloozyorsk, Brest region briefly 
detained the car of the leader of Belarus' united democratic 
forces Aleksandr Milinkevich.  According to Milinkevich spokesman 
Pavel Mozheiko, the police explained that they had received an 
anonymous phone tip that the car was being used to transport and 
distribute narcotics and alcohol.  Police examined the car and 
released Milinkevich one hour later.  Mozheiko noted that police 
interrogated Milinkevich about his political activities in the 
region, not about the drug allegations.  Milinkevich was 
collecting nomination signatures for local opposition activists. 
 
¶6.   Charge Against Human Rights Defender Dropped 
 
On December 7, a Minsk judge dismissed the administrative case 
 
MINSK 00001272  002 OF 003 
 
 
against human rights defender Oleg Volchek because the statute of 
limitation had expired.  On September 3, customs officers found 
several copies of a book on the 2006 presidential elections in 
Volchek's luggage to Germany this past September.  The books 
allegedly contained materials that "could cause damage to the 
country's political interests."  Volchek was tried in absentia 
earlier for attempting to bring the book to the Netherlands this 
past October and fined USD 725. 
 
¶7.    Landlord Gives Private Paper Two Days to Move Out 
 
On December 6, the Vitebsk-based independent newspaper Vitebskiy 
Kuryer received official word from the building administration 
that the newspaper staff had until December 8 to vacate its 
office.  The building administration declared that the office 
lease is "null and void," given the paper's ongoing legal dispute 
with the local authorities.  Separately, on December 8, the 
Ministry of Information delivered a written warning to Vitebskiy 
Kuryer editor Vladimir Bazan for having failed to register the 
paper's legal address. 
 
¶8.   Polish Priests and Nuns Forced to Leave Belarus 
 
On December 6, independent media reported that seven Polish 
priests and five Polish nuns working in the Roman Catholic 
Diocese of Grodno have to leave Belarus by the end of the year. 
The Committee on Religious and National Affairs refused to renew 
their work permits this past August citing the need to provide 
Belarusian graduates of the Roman Catholic seminaries in Grodno 
and Pinsk with jobs.  According to a Grodno diocese priest Antony 
Khanko, approximately 30 local Roman Catholic communities do not 
have clergy despite the fact that graduates of the seminaries are 
annually conferred.  Approximately 180 priests, including 72 
foreign nationals, currently work in local communities. 
 
¶9.   Catholic Hunger Strikers Allowed to Build Church 
 
On December 6, Grodno Regional Executive Committee chair Vladimir 
Savchenko sent a letter to the head of the Grodno Diocese 
Aleksandr Kashkevich allowing the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of 
Mercy community to build a church.  The priest of the Roman 
Catholic community Aleksandr Shemet stated that the protestors 
would start taking food but stressed that the end of the strike 
did not mean an end to struggle against the "oppression of 
Christian churches."  Shemet and 11 parishioners went on a hunger 
strike on December 1 in protest against the local authorities' 
refusal to permit them to construct a church. 
 
¶10.  Minsk Hare Krishna Community Forced Out of Office 
 
On December 4, the Minsk-based community of the International 
Society for Krishna Consciousness is facing closure over the 
absence of a registered legal address.  The Hare Krishna 
community has been looking for an office to register as its legal 
address for two years since they were ordered to leave the office 
they had been renting. Presently, there are eight Hare Krishna 
communities operating in the country. 
 
¶11.  Almost 3,000 Corruption Offenses Detected in Belarus 
 
On December 5, Prosecutor General Pyotr Miklashevich reported 
that prosecutorial agencies detected approximately 3,000 
corruption-related offenses from January to October 2006.  Almost 
one-third of these corruption crimes were connected with bribery. 
According to Miklashevich, the prosecutors office drafted a 2007- 
2010 anti-corruption program aimed at reducing corruption. 
 
----------------------- 
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 
----------------------- 
 
¶12.  International Helsinki Federation Appeals to E.U. 
 
On December 6, International Helsinki Federation Executive 
Director Aaron Rhodes appealed to the European Union and the 
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to help the 
Belarusian Helsinki Committee and all human rights defenders in 
Belarus.  Rhodes noted that without human rights groups, the 
government would face no civil control or accountability in its 
quest to gain absolute power. 
 
¶13.  UNDP/GEF to Help Reduce CO2 Emissions in Belarus 
 
On December 5, the UNDP and Global Environment Facility (GEF) 
project director Vladimir Voitekhovich predicted at a seminar in 
Minsk that carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 1.08 
million tons in Belarus over 15 years thanks to the use of 
biomass for heating in Belarus.  Belarus is one of the countries 
where annual forest growth exceeds annual harvest, thus making it 
ideal for such a project. 
 
 
MINSK 00001272  003 OF 003 
 
 
¶14.  NATO's Allied Command Operations Visit Belarus 
 
On December 4, a delegation of NATO's Allied Command Operations 
arrived in Minsk on a four-day visit to inform Belarusian defense 
officials about exercise plans, the involvement of partner 
countries in operations, and the deployment of peacekeeping units 
with communication and computer equipment.  The NATO officials 
are also expected to discuss prospects for cooperation with 
Belarus in operations conducted as part of the Partnership for 
Peace program. 
 
¶15.  EU to Consider Again GSP Suspension for Belarus 
 
On December 5, the expert committee under the European Commission 
approved the proposal to temporarily suspend Belarus' benefits 
under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).  The approval 
could clear the way for the EU Foreign Ministers to formally 
announce in December the plan to impose tariffs on imports of 
Belarusian wood, textiles and minerals in summer 2007.  The 
withdrawal of GSP benefits would result in the loss of several 
hundred million dollars for Belarus. 
 
----------------- 
QUOTE OF THE WEEK 
----------------- 
 
¶16. On December 5, Belarusian opposition leader Aleksandr 
Milinkevich announced that he will nominate imprisoned opposition 
activist Aleksandr Kozulin for the 2007 Martin Ennals Award for 
Human Rights Defenders, which is presented to individuals or 
organizations who have displayed exceptional courage in combating 
human rights violations and offered the following observation: 
 
"The courage and vigor that Aleksandr Kozulin shows in his 
struggle for his rights is admirable.  His hunger strike is today 
a symbol of all Belarusians' aspirations to live in a free and 
democratic state.  The entire world should know of it.  This 
award will above all be a strong message of the international 
community to the Belarusian regime that it should start releasing 
political prisoners." 
 
Moore