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| U.S., NATO Condemn Detention of Belarus Opposition Leader |
| 2006-04-30 |
| The U.S. State Department has condemned the detention of Belarus main opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich. State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli called the detention of Milinkevich and other opposition leaders “outrageous and reprehensible.” He said “unfortunately, these are only the latest in an ongoing series of acts which —- against the citizens (of Belarus) who are only attempting to exercise their basic human rights and fundamental freedoms.” “We condemn these actions and we call on the authorities to immediately release those detained and drop the charges against them,” Ereli said. Milinkevich, opposition candidate at the presidential election in Belarus, was sentenced to 15 days in jail a day after he led a protest rally in the capital of Minsk that attracted around 10,000 people, one of the largest turnouts in six weeks of demonstrations against the President Alexander Lukashenko. Other opposition leaders, Vintsuk Vyachorka, Alexander Bukhvostov, and Sergei Kalyakin, were also detained. “I would note that both we and the European Union have already announced measures to hold accountable officials responsible for these abuses. And we will continue working with our European partners to, I think, maintain a united front in the face of this gross assault on values that we all share,” Ereli said. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer also condemned Milinkevich’s detention and called for his release. Speaking during a meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers in Sofia, Scheffer quoted by Sofia News agency said “this is another demonstration of anti-democratic behavior on behalf of the regime of Minks. I call on the regime in Minsk to release Milinkevich immediately and to refrain from this kind of actions in the future.” “The Euro-Atlantic community cannot accept this to happen in the heart of Europe,” he said. Rice said that the United States “sincerely hopes that the Belarusian government will accept the will of the international community that it acts in accordance with accepted international principles when it comes to the treatment of opposition.” |
| Posted by:Steve White |