BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
27/02/2008
1,000 join jailed Belarus Oppn leader for wife's funeral
About 1,000 Belarussians have defiantly joined Opposition Leader Alexander Kozulin at his wife's funeral, after the ex-Soviet republic's authoritarian Government briefly released him from prison following strong US pressure.
Mournful violin music played under overcast skies as hundreds joined a haggard Mr Kozulin, temporarily freed from a five-and-a-half year prison term imposed in 2006 for demonstrating against President Alexander Lukashenko.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary State David Kramer was cleared to fly into Belarus for the burial at the Tarasova Cemetery outside the capital Minsk, the ex-Soviet republic's foreign ministry said.
Overnight, thousands came to offer support and farewells as Mr Kozulin's wife Irina was laid out at a vigil in a Minsk Catholic church. She died of cancer on Saturday, aged 48.
The French, Romanian and Swedish ambassadors, as well as representatives of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), also attended.
Mr Kozulin, 53, was released overnight between Monday and Tuesday and must go back to prison late Thursday, but said at the church: "I hope I will stay with you."
He was jailed in 2006 after leading a protest against the controversial election victory of Mr Lukashenko, dubbed by Washington "Europe's last dictator."
He was released in time for the funeral only after starting a hunger strike and receiving high-level EU and US support.
Ambassadors from several European Union countries met with Kozulin on Tuesday.
A US State Department spokesman on Wednesday welcomed Kozulin's temporary release, but urged that his "release be made permanent."
Source:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/28/2174699.htm
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