BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

06/06/2005

Havel sets up association in support of Belarussian NGOs

(PDM staff with CTK) 6 June - A group of former Czech dissidents led by ex-president Vaclav Havel has established the International Association of Belarussian Citizens to support democratic initiatives in Belarus, including the NGOs banned by the regime of Belorussian President Aleksandr Lukashenko.

The new association will present its plans, along with the Belarussian NGO Vyasna's report on the violation of human rights in Belarus, in the Senate next Monday.

The international community has criticised Belarussian governing circles for violating human rights.

In April, the U.N. Human Rights Commission sent a resolution calling on Lukashenko's regime to respect trade unions' and journalists' rights, and to investigate the disappearance or possible murders of three politicians and one journalist in 1999 and 2000.

The U.N. resolution also called on the Belorussian government to stop persecuting NGOs, political parties, trade unions, independent media, religious organisations and people fighting for human rights and democracy.

A number of Czech politicians rank among the sharpest critics of the Belarussian regime and representatives of the Belarussian opposition can regularly find support in the Czech Senate.

Apart from Havel, the founding members of the new association in support of Belarussian NGOs include former Senate deputy chairman Jan Ruml, deputy ombudsman Anna Sabatova, head of the People in Need foundation Tomas Pojar and senator Karel Schwarzenberg.

The latter men are also members of the international committee headed by Ruml, which is striving for the improvement of human rights observance in China by the time of Summer Olympic Games, to be held in Beijing in 2008.

Source:

http://www.praguemonitor.com/ctk/?id=20050603F01935;cat=news