DATE:
03/05/2006
By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published May 3, 2006
GENEVA, Switzerland -- A U.N. human rights expert is demanding immediate release of political prisoners in Belarus, calling on the government to cease human rights violations.
In a prepared statement released Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, Adrian Severin, the United Nations' special rapporteur on human rights in Belarus, also called for the government to allow him to conduct a fact-finding mission to the country as soon as possible.
"The special rapporteur demands the immediate and unconditional release of Aleksandr Milinkevich, Vintsuk Vyachorka, Aleksandr Buchvostau and Sergei Kalyakin as well as of all other political prisoners of Belarus," the statement said, highlighting Severin's "grave concern" over the detention of these opposition leaders.
He demanded the government "give a clear and immediate sign of its readiness to cease ongoing human rights violations and bring their perpetrators to justice," and that he be invited to conduct a fact-finding mission to Belarus at the earliest possible opportunity.
Severin also expressed "serious concern" at reports indicating another opposition member, Anatoly Lebedko, had been detained for several hours by KGB officers April 25, during which "he would have been the victim of threats and ill-treatments."
He also urged the government to "promptly engage in dialogue with all sectors of the Belarusian civil society, including the political opposition," as a way of defining a road map for implementing recommendations of U.N. human rights experts.
The statement is the latest condemnation of rights violations in Belarus by Severin, after he voiced similar concerns surrounding the March presidential elections, when on one occasion he was joined by six other rights experts in calling for investigations into what was termed the deteriorating human rights situation.
Source:
http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20060503-104754-1993r
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