BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/08/2006

Belarus Convicts 4 Election Observers Who Challenged President

MOSCOW, Aug. 4 - A court in Belarus today convicted four election observers whose arrests in February foreshadowed the broad crackdown that followed the disputed reelection of President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko.

Wide-ranging coverage of Russia and the former Soviet republics, updated by The Times's Moscow bureau.

The observers, leaders of an American-financed organization called Partnership, received prison sentences ranging from six months to two years under a new law adopted late last year to restrict public protests.

Formally, they faced charges of membership in an unlawful organization, though on the eve of the election in March the head of the country's security agency publicly accused them of plotting a violent coup.

Since the election, in which Mr. Lukashenko received 82 percent of the vote, according to official results, the authorities have arrested scores of protesters and political leaders opposed to Mr. Lukashenko. Last month a court sentenced one of his challengers, Aleskandr V. Kazulin, to five and a half years in prison for organizing a rally in April to protest the vote.

Another challenger, Aleksandr Milinkevich, who himself has been arrested and jailed for brief periods since March, criticized the verdict today as a "political execution" of those simply trying to hold the government to account for its electoral behavior.

"This trial demonstrates the arbitrariness of administrative and command rule and the complete absence of any control over the power," Mr. Milinkevich said in a statement.

The Partnership group gained prominence for organizing observers during elections in 2004 for a new Parliament and for a referendum that allows Mr. Lukashenko to seek reelection indefinitely. The group received money from the National Democratic Institute, whose representative for Belarus, David Hamilton, was also accused by the authorities of participating in the coup plot.

The government refused to register the group legally and raided an organizational meeting last year, arresting dozens of members. The four convicted today - Nikolai Astreiko, Timofei Dranchuk, Aleksandr Shalaiko and Enira Bronitskaya - were leaders of the group whose arrests in February effectively disrupted its plans to observe the presidential election. The United States and Europe roundly denounced the vote as a fraud.

Belgium's foreign minister, Karel De Gucht, criticized the case, citing the nature of the charges and the murky circumstances of the trial, which was held behind closed doors. "I believe it is a mistake to add even more individuals to an already extensive list of politically motivated convictions," Mr. De Gucht, who also serves as the chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said in a statement today.

The United States and Europe have sanctioned Mr. Lukashenko and members of the government in protest, imposing a ban on travel for many senior officials and a freeze on their assets abroad. Those measures appear to have had little real affect on Belarus, which continues to receive political support from Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin.

David J. Kramer, a deputy assistant secretary of state for the region, said in a telephone interview from Washington that those involved in the Partnership prosecution could also face sanctions. That would presumably include a ban on travel to the United States, but he declined to elaborate.

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/world/europe/04cnd-belarus.html?ref=europe