BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

19.10.2005

Belarus reporter's death prompts EU questions

By Andrew Rettman

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A Belarusian opposition journalist has been found dead in suspicious circumstances, prompting EU efforts to find out if the incident represents Minsk's latest attempt to gag independent media in the country.

The body of Vasil Grodnikov, a writer on political and social affairs for the independent Minsk-based Narodna Wola newspaper, was discovered by his brother lying next to a telephone in his home in Zaslaul, near the capital, on Tuesday (18 October) morning.

The reporter's family claims he was murdered, saying his head and the wallpaper were covered with blood but with no signs of a break-in to the property, according to a statement forwarded to the Belarusian NGO Charter 97.

One western embassy in Minsk told EUobserver that an internal police report confirms the family's fears and states that Mr Grodnikov was killed by a blow to the head with a blunt instrument.

But a different opinion appears to have been given by the editor-in-chief of Narodna Wola, Iosif Syaredzich, who was quoted by the BelPAN news agency as saying that following telephone conversations with government investigators, he had "no grounds even for supposing that he has been murdered".

The Brussels office chief of NGO Democratic Belarus, Olga Stuzhinksaya, indicated that "No one really wants to make any statements at this stage", adding "It [the BelPAN report] doesn't make any sense to me".

Narodna Wola is currently printed in small runs in Smolensk, Russia, after Belarusian state printers pulled the paper's contract earlier this month.

EU does its bit for free speech

EU authorities on Wednesday sent out feelers to member states' embassies in Belarus to try and get confirmation of the facts before reacting.

The UK, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, the Czech republic, Slovakia and the US all have formal seats in the country.

"We are following the situation in Belarus very closely with a particular emphasis on the freedom of the media", EU external relations' spokeswoman Emma Udwin said in reaction to the news. "We very much support the efforts of those who are trying to maintain an independent voice in Belarus".

The EU is currently trying to set up a ?2 million radio station project to pump information about the outside world into the country, with work ongoing on a shortlist of potential bidders.

The unit is set to be up and running in January 2006.

The EU in September renewed a travel ban on six Belarusian politicians who were linked to alleged vote-rigging and "severe human rights violations" in 2004, including the disappearance of other opposition journalists.

On top of this, member states are discouraged from bilateral meetings with members of president Alexander Lukashenko's cabinet under an EU resolution dating back to 1997.

Diplomatic contacts

Belarus' foreign minister Sergei Martynov will come to Brussels in early December for a NATO EuroAtlantic partners' meeting, which brings together NATO's 26 foreign ministers as well as its 20 "partners" which also include Ukraine, Russia and some western Balkan states.

His schedule is unclear, but the 1997 ban exempts multilateral meetings undertaken under the banner of international organisations.

Last week, Belarus' deputy foreign minister Alexander Mikhailovich reportedly visited the European Commission to talk with trade experts about textile exports and Belarus' WTO prospects.

But an EU diplomat said that barring "a couple of incidents" the 1997 ministerial ban is well-respected by member states.

A Belarusian source indicated that "This [regular contact at expert level] is necessary, or else how can we move forward with things, when Belarus has a direct border with the enlarged EU?"

Source:

http://euobserver.com/24/20133