US embassy cable - 05MINSK1348

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MINSK 001348 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, BO 
SUBJECT: FREEDMON TO TRAVEL FREELY IN THEORY ONLY 
 
 
1.  Summary: In the past month, the GOB has taken a series 
of steps - including detentions at airports and borders, 
seizures at customs, travel bans, and refusals to issue exit 
travel permits - to prevent opposition leaders and activists 
from traveling abroad freely.  The GOB's actions indicate a 
trend of keeping tighter control over those associated with 
the opposition in the lead-up to the 2006 presidential 
elections.  End summary. 
 
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Some Experienced Problems at the Border 
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2.  On October 27, Belarusian customs officials prevented 
Belarusian Social Democratic Party "Hramada" (BSDP) leader 
Aleksandr Kozulin from boarding a plane to Frankfurt. 
Kozulin was traveling to Denmark and Sweden to participate 
in two conferences on October 28-30.  The authorities 
searched Kozulin when he arrived at the airport but allowed 
him to proceed when they did not find a reason to prevent 
him from leaving.  When Kozulin tried to board the plane, 
however, authorities forced him to return to the airport 
terminal and confiscated items from his bags including 
invitations to the conferences, a letter to presidential 
opposition candidate Aleksandr Milinkevich and general 
information about the BSDP.  The authorities made him wait 
several hours while they wrote up the incident, thereby 
causing Kozulin to miss his flight.  Kozulin commented the 
authorities conducted the search under the "precedent of 
open arbitrariness with a poorly disguised political 
motive."  [Note: Post does not believe Kozulin has 
subsequently tried to leave the country. End Note.] 
 
3.  The same day, customs officials seized written material 
from United Civic Party (UCP) leader Anatoly Lebedko upon 
his arrival to the Minsk airport from Strasbourg, where he 
had met with members of the European Parliament.  The 
authorities confiscated Lebedko's travel itineraries and 
information in English on the recent National Congress of 
Democratic Forces and biographies of presidential opposition 
candidates.  Lebedko defended his right to have these 
documents, and the absurdity of their seizure, since the 
information was easily available on the internet and was 
neither secret nor subversive.  He pointed out that 
officials from the Belarusian embassy were even at some of 
the meetings he attended and could have passed the 
information the authorities confiscated to concerned 
agencies in Belarus.  [Note: Leader of the Belarusian 
Popular Front Vintsuk Vyachorka, who in the past has been 
repeatedly stopped and searched by authorities when crossing 
the border, traveled back to Belarus with Lebedko. 
Vyachorka, however, experienced no trouble with the 
authorities at customs.  He added sarcastically, "I am even 
a bit disappointed."  End Note.] 
 
4.  On October 31, Belarusian guards at the Polish border 
detained former leader of the Union of Belarusian Poles 
(UBP) Anzhelika Borys for several hours before finally 
allowing her to pass to Poland.  [Note: Anzhelika Borys was 
the democratically elected leader of the UBP, who was 
removed in GOB-managed elections. End Note.]  At first, the 
authorities invalidated the exit travel stamp in her 
passport, which is a necessary requirement for travel 
abroad.  Eventually the authorities reinstated her exit 
travel stamp and allowed her to continue on her way. 
 
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Some Cannot Even Get to the Border 
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5.  On October 28, the Minsk City Council of Lawyers denied 
human rights lawyer Vera Stremkovskaya permission to travel 
to Tbilisi from November 2-5 for an OSCE conference on 
independent Bar associations.  That same day, the council 
adopted a resolution forbidding all lawyers to travel abroad 
for a period of one month.  Previously the council denied 
permission for Stremkovskaya to travel to an international 
conference in Korea after she spoke in Warsaw about the need 
for judicial system reforms and guarantees for independent 
Bar associations to defend human rights in Belarus. 
 
6.  On October 12, a Belarusian court rejected UBP 
activist Andrzej Poczobut's appeal of a GOB travel ban. 
On July 27, a Grodno court banned him from traveling 
abroad until he paid the remainder of his BYR 5.1 
million [USD 2,380] fine.  [Note: This amount is 
equivalent to an average annual salary. End Note.] 
Poczobut still owed BYR 500,000 [USD 232], but was not 
able to make the next payment since he was serving a 
short jail sentence.  Since Poczobut considered the 
remaining amount to be negligible, he hoped the court 
 
MINSK 00001348  002 OF 002 
 
 
would remove the travel ban.  He regarded the courts 
decision as a "politically motivated...campaign of 
pressure on those UBP members who don't recognize the 
results of the [GOB mandated UBP] repeat sixth 
convention."  [Comment: The GOB has vastly increased the 
use of large fines in recent months, and in several 
cases has denied pro-democracy activists the right to 
travel abroad for non-payment of these fines. End 
Comment.] 
 
7.  On October 4, the Belarusians Constitutional Court ruled 
to keep the country's foreign travel permit system in place. 
If Belarusian citizens wish to travel abroad, they must pay 
a fee of BYR 127,500 [USD 60] to receive a five-year travel 
permit.  The court had originally recommended to annul the 
permit system by January 1, 2006 but later revoked its 
recommendation after the government protested.  On October 
28, the department of Passports and Visas Services denied 
Zubr human rights coordinator Iryna Toustsik an exit permit 
stamp in her passport because the Belarusian KGB wanted to 
ask her some questions.  Toustsik linked the denial and 
subsequent inquiry to her opposition activities. 
 
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Comment 
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8.  Freedom of movement is guaranteed by the Belarusian 
constitution.  Although in most cases activists only face 
increased scrutiny and more thorough checks at the border, 
in recent months the GOB has increasingly interfered with 
the ability of pro-democracy activists to travel abroad, and 
in many cases even within the country.  The GOB's recent 
actions indicate a new and alarming trend to exert more 
control over the opposition in the lead up to next year's 
presidential elections. 
 
KROL