US embassy cable - 04THEHAGUE1880

C O N F I D E N T I A L THE HAGUE 001880 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/25/2014 
TAGS: KOLY, PHUM, PREL, BO, NL, EUN 
SUBJECT: DUTCH ON EXCLUDING BELARUSIAN MINISTER FROM THE 
OLYMPICS 
 
REF: STATE 160967 
 
Classified By: CLASSIFIED BY ANDREW SCHOFER FOR REASONS 1.5 (B AND D) 
 
 (C) PolMilOff delivered reftel points to MFA Belarus Desk 
Officer Daniel Melchers on July 26.  Melchers acknowledged 
Dutch (and UK) support for barring Sivakov.  The French and 
the Germans, however, continue to argue that visa bans are 
one of the few things the EU can do, and that the EU should 
therefore not use them too often.  Greece was arguing that a 
ban would not be in the "Olympic Spirit" and that there 
should be "no politics" involved in the games.  Melchers 
expected the Greeks to refuse to take action.  He said "one 
thing is sure, we won't shake hands with him, and he won't be 
photographed with the Prince of Orange (the Dutch Crown 
Prince)."  Melchers claimed the Dutch, as EU President, had 
their hands tied since visa bans needed to be agreed at 25. 
He said that the only thing the GONL could do at this point 
was make another approach to the French and Germans, as they 
might be worried about the status of the European Humanities 
University.  Separately, Melchers said the Dutch were 
contemplating approaching the Belarusians as EU President to 
urge them to approve the presence of monitoring teams at the 
upcoming elections in a "timely" fashion so as to facilitate 
their presence. 
RUSSEL