US embassy cable - 05MINSK1327

C O N F I D E N T I A L MINSK 001327 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/31/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, BO 
SUBJECT: Embassy Officers Encounter Problems In Slutsk 
 
 
Classified by Ambassador George Krol for Reasons 1.4 (B,D) 
 
1. (C) Summary: On October 19, poloffs visited the southern 
town of Slutsk to view the GOB's large-scale, harvest- 
related renovation of the city and to meet with various 
government, opposition, and social leaders.  State media 
reporters and regional authorities harassed poloffs and 
interfered in their meetings.  A caravan of police, news, 
and KGB vehicles followed the emboffs throughout Slutsk. 
Despite this harassment, emboffs were able to meet with 
newspaper editors and a consumer protection group who 
confirmed emboffs' suspicions that the town's renovation 
was superficial at best.  However, meetings with the local 
authorities and opposition activists were cancelled and 
poloffs returned early to Minsk.  At a later meeting in 
Minsk, activists expressed their frustration with the 
capital-centric attitude and in-fighting among the 
political opposition elite. End Summary. 
 
Dazhynki 
--------- 
 
2. (U) Slutsk (pop. 60,000) hosted the 2005 harvest 
festival celebration Dazhynki on October 7.  Dazhynki is a 
holiday marking the end of Belarus' harvest season and 
honors the country's best grain growers.  Every year, the 
GOB chooses a different city to host the celebration, which 
is usually chosen well in advance to allow for the city's 
massive facelift.  These renovations are primarily new 
paint jobs, fagade work, and repairs on visible 
infrastructure, such as sidewalks and roads.  However, Post 
has heard from residents of former Dazhynki towns that the 
renovations are often shoddy and do not include the 
necessary inner-building repairs.  According to the state 
press, the GOB allocated USD 56.7 million for Slutsk's 
renovation.  During the celebration, city access was closed 
and tightly guarded, leaving some residents stranded and 
unable to return to their homes.  President Lukashenko 
christened the new and improved Slutsk and used the time to 
lambaste the U.S. and the Belarusian opposition movement in 
his speech while highlighting what he, and not the 
government, did for the city.  Poloffs decided to visit 
Slutsk to find out the true story of Dazhynki. 
 
A Bad Start 
----------- 
 
3. (SBU) Upon arrival in Slutsk on October 19, a marked 
police car appeared and tailed Poloffs to their first 
meeting with the chair of the district executive committee 
Aleksandr Drako.  The Embassy arranged the meeting with 
Drako a week in advance, asking for a small chat about the 
previous week's festivities, but as poloffs entered Drako's 
office, they were met by local state owned press and the 
national television channel Stolichnaye Televidinye (STV). 
When poloffs protested the press presence at what was 
supposed to be a closed meeting, one of Drako's associates 
smiled and said in an audible voice, "Why, how are we going 
to advertise that we had diplomats in this town without 
videotaping the event.  We have no secrets."  After some 
discussion, poloffs gave their apologies and left the 
building with the STV cameraman following them to the 
Embassy vehicle. 
 
A Hostile Attitude 
------------------ 
 
4. (SBU) The police, along with a press van and the 
executive committee's chief ideology officer in a BKGB 
vehicle, followed poloffs to their next meeting with Sergei 
Stankevich, chief editor of the independent newspaper 
Kurier.  Stankevich at first refused admittance to the 
journalists, but the STV correspondent told him that it was 
her job and duty to videotape the meeting.  Stankevich 
allowed three correspondents and the ideology officer into 
the room, but without cameras.  Poloffs asked the 
journalists to leave, but the ideology officer could not 
understand why American diplomats on an official visit did 
not want to speak in front of the cameras.  Eventually they 
all left the room. 
 
5. (C) Stankevich spoke about the town renovations that 
began after January 1, such as the new homes built, 
downtown's remodeled architecture, the widening of town 
square, and the relocation of the refurbished statue of 
Lenin to the front of the administration building.  In his 
opinion, the city became more European, which in turn 
changed the residents' behavior, inspiring them to walk 
around the parks and get out of their houses. 
 
6. (C) Due to the difficulties in publishing controversial 
articles, Stankevich's newspaper has become more business 
oriented rather than political and avoids opinion and 
commentary.  Chief editor of Kapital (9,000 copies a week) 
Andrei Kadrenko, stressed how his newspaper, which is 
mostly a large advertising journal, is completely 
independent and does not rely on grants.  Another paper, 
Kareer, is trying to preserve and resurrect the area's 
history, which according to the GOB, did not begin until 
after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. 
 
7. (C) Kadrenko curtly asked poloffs why Embassy officers 
were in Slutsk and what was the purpose of the meeting. 
Kadrenko told poloffs that they had already seen that the 
new decorations were just a fagade hiding the bad 
interiors.  He then opined that no independent/opposition 
press exists in Belarus.  The "so-called" independent 
newspapers have their own censors and allegedly cater to 
Western interests.  According to Kadrenko, the West should 
stop financing the newspapers because it does not help 
Belarus and all the money goes into people's pockets. 
Kadrenko then asked if free press existed in the U.S. and, 
along with the editors of Oska Express and Kareer, accused 
the Washington Post of being the White House's mouthpiece. 
[Comment: The independent editors' behavior towards poloffs 
was antagonistic and rude at best.  They were hesitant to 
speak about their activities or about life in Slutsk and 
dodged poloffs' questions.  At one point, Kadrenko told 
Stankevich to quit complaining to poloffs and then began to 
indirectly insinuate that press in the U.S. was not free. 
All did not seem satisfied with any of poloffs' answers to 
their questions.] 
 
A Successful Organization 
------------------------- 
 
8. (C) Igor Gubanov, chair of the non-profit Protection of 
Consumers' Rights group, met with poloffs at his office. 
Gubanov's organization, founded in 1992, defends consumers 
against state companies and private businesses that sell 
faulty products and "lemon" merchandise.  Cases range from 
faulty plumbing to rotten bread.  The organization also 
provides free legal counseling and advice. 
 
9. (C) Local authorities, according to Gubanov, refuse to 
work with his organization, let alone answer Gubanov's 
letters or requests for meetings.  When Gubanov first 
began, the authorities would not even provide him an office 
until his parent organization in Minsk got involved. 
Recently, the authorities turned off the organization's 
phone line without providing a reason. 
 
10. (C) Gubanov's organization relies on what its clients 
are able to donate, so money is scarce.  None of Gubanov's 
staff has received wages in two months and they are now 
trying to find a way to pay for heat.  However, the 
organization continues to operate and amazingly wins 95 
percent of its lawsuits against businesses.  Three pending 
lawsuits concern Slutsk's large-scale renovations for the 
Dazhynki festival.  According to Gubanov, officials ordered 
the renovations without concern for people's property and 
living conditions.  Roofs were torn off and not covered, 
allowing massive flooding in people's homes without 
compensation while workers carelessly broke personal 
property, mirrors, and windows in their hasty efforts to 
give the town a face-lift. 
 
11. (C) Anatoly Samusevich of the Union of Entrepreneurs 
joined the meeting and had to push the press back out of 
the room. [Note: Each time Samusevich or Gubanov left the 
room, journalists tried to enter.]  Samusevich reported 
that 2100 private businesses exist in Slutsk, but only 80 
of them are 100 percent privately owned.  Business is 
developing, albeit at a slow pace, and one quarter of the 
region's budget comes from private enterprises.  Around 90 
percent of private businessmen are market traders who 
travel to Russia and Ukraine to buy cheap products and 
resell them in Slutsk.  Samusevich pointed out that the 
authorities are too reluctant to accept new initiatives and 
too many laws contradict each other. 
 
12. (C) Petr Stepanovich of the group Spadchina (Heritage) 
entered the room and tried to bring in the STV cameraman. 
Poloffs asked Stepanovich to leave the reporter outside, 
but Stepanovich claimed he wanted the state press to film 
him telling diplomats about the horrible human rights 
situation in Belarus.  Spadchina is a group of 
intellectuals who monitor human rights abuses in Slutsk. 
Stepanovich wrote a report and sent it to the President, 
parliament, and the administration, but received no reply. 
 
A Failed Meeting 
---------------- 
 
13. (C) Poloffs met with various political activists in the 
parking lot across from Gubanov's office to decide on a 
location for the meeting.  The activists were not happy 
with being filmed and offered to meet in an apartment.  The 
police, media, and ideology officer/BKGB followed the 
Embassy vehicle to the designated apartment, but Poloffs, 
fearing a set-up, decided to cancel the meeting.  The 
activists, headed by Narodnaya Gramada leader Gennadiyi 
Shevtsov and other members of the United Civic Party and 
Conservative Christian Party BPF understood and agreed to 
meet poloffs at a later date. 
 
An Escort Out of Town 
--------------------- 
 
14. (SBU) The caravan continued to follow Poloffs as they 
drove around town looking at the renovation work.  The 
police followed for an additional twenty minutes beyond 
city limits.  At a restaurant along the highway, Poloffs 
pulled over to ask a pedestrian where to buy pumpkins. 
Before the pedestrian could finish his sentence, the police 
car pulled up alongside and called the pedestrian over for 
a little talk. 
 
A Later Meeting 
--------------- 
 
15. (C) On October 26, the Slutsk political activists met 
poloff at the Embassy and thanked the U.S. for its moral 
support and apologized for the government press' 
"unethical" behavior and harassment.  The activists claimed 
that freedom of association in Slutsk is nonexistent, but 
since they had all either been fired or lost their 
businesses, they no longer fear the local authorities. 
They criticized their respective party leaders for spending 
too much time abroad rather than visiting the regions. 
According to Shevtsov, the only way to contact party 
headquarters is to travel to Minsk since none of the 10+ 
leaders had been to Slutsk in ages.  The activists are 
frustrated with the childish games between the opposition 
parties and their inability to see things through.  They 
opined that few Slutsk residents would participate in 
street actions following the 2006 presidential election 
because in 2001 the parties failed to defend citizens who 
were fired for supporting the anti-Lukashenko movement. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
16. (C) It was apparent that the journalists, police, and 
ideology officer's goal was to fluster emboffs and 
interfere with the meetings.  Emboffs have been followed 
before on regional trips, but the magnitude of attention 
given in Slutsk was a first.  Remarks made by the 
journalists and the executive committee, such as "we have 
no secrets" or "do the diplomats plan not to talk to the 
press at all" coincide with the anti-U.S. statements 
regularly made on Belarus' propaganda television.  No doubt 
this footage will be used for that purpose.  The DCM raised 
with the America's Desk of the MFA the state media's 
harassment of embassy officers.  The MFA official responded 
that the press were doing their job of getting "news," but 
promised to request the press department look into the 
issue.  Nonetheless, Post expects such harassment to get 
worse as presidential elections approach. 
 
KROL