BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
27/02/2008
Mourners bury jailed Belarus opposition leader's wife
by Tatyana Kalinovskaya
Over 1,000 mourners defiantly joined opposition leader Alexander Kozulin at his wife's funeral on Wednesday after the ex-Soviet republic's authorities briefly released him from prison under US pressure.
Violin music played as mourners crammed into a Catholic cathedral with a haggard-looking Kozulin, who was temporarily freed from a five-and-a-half year jail term imposed in 2006 for demonstrating against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.
The US and Israeli ambassadors were among foreign diplomats who attended to show their support.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary State David Kramer, who had asked Belarussian authorities for a visa to attend, was not present as the visa he received was valid only from March 3, a US embassy official told AFP.
After the church service, mourners moved to a cemetery near Minsk to bury Kozulin's wife Irina, who died of cancer on Saturday, aged 48.
"I was sure she would wait and we'd overcome this illness together. But it turned out that her illness overcame her ... She set an example of how to live and die," Kozulin told the mourners.
"I bow before my wife's grave and before you in order that love, kindness, justice and humanity should reign in Belarus," he said.
Kozulin was jailed in 2006 after leading a protest against the controversial election victory of 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.
On Wednesday the US embassy said that any visit by Kramer in the near future "will depend on the unconditional release of Alexander Kozulin by Belarussian authorities."
A US State Department spokesman on Wednesday welcomed Kozulin's temporary release, but urged that his "release be made permanent."
If all internationally recognized political prisoners in Belarus are released, "we would be prepared to begin a dialogue with Belarus on further steps to improve bilateral relations," the spokesman added.
Opposition gatherings in Belarus are rare and the police regularly use violence to disperse even small street protests.
At an overnight vigil in the cathedral in Minsk, however, Belarussians were able to express themselves openly.
"Many people here had not known Irina personally, but they came to offer their respect to this fragile and courageous woman they learned about when her husband met with disaster," politician Valentina Svyatskaya told AFP.
"She courageously fought for her husband and was always uncompromising with the regime, though she knew of her fatal illness," she added.
"I am very happy that people on whom Kozulin's release depended, helped him come and say his last farewells to his wife. It is very humane," said Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusievicz.
At the vigil, Kozulin accused Lukashenko of inhumanity for keeping him in prison after he had already served a third of his term.
"Anyone else would have freed me with an amnesty," he said. "There would have been no problem freeing me and saving face, especially knowing the condition my wife was in.
"As you can understand, Irina above all needed her husband near her. That would have been humane, but (Lukashenko) did everything to humiliate me more."
Earlier, before his release, Kozulin said: "Lukashenko killed my wife, he is a murderer, my wife's death is on his conscience."
Source:
http://www.france24.com/en/20080227-mourners-bury-jailed-belarus-opposition-leaders-wife
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