BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

21/06/2007

Opposition Leaders Criticize UN Decision To Scrap Special Rapporteur For Belarus

Alyaksandr Milinkevich, former presidential candidate of the united opposition, told Belapan on June 19 that the recent UN Human Rights Council decision to eliminate the mandate of a rapporteur on human rights for Belarus "ultimately undermines" the reputation of the UN (see "RFE/RL Newsline," June 19, 2007). "The council's decision is a severe blow to the struggle for ensuring respect for human rights that pro-democratic forces are conducting here," Milinkevich said. "This decision will now be used by the Belarusian authorities for propaganda purposes. The council has turned into a helpless body incapable of efficiently monitoring the human rights situation in problem countries." Vintsuk Vyachorka, chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front, commented that if undemocratic and dictatorial regimes coordinate their efforts, they will be able to dictate their will to the United Nations. According to Vyachorka, Belarus's democratic forces should pin their hopes regarding the human-rights situation in Belarus on the EU and the United States rather than on the UN. "I believe that if EU countries and the U.S. announced their nonparticipation in the present [UN Human Rights] Council, this would completely discredit this institution, and it would make no sense for us to appeal to the council, as the human-rights situation in Belarus would be considered by representatives of nations that have similar or even worse human-rights records," Vyachorka noted. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/06/3-cee/cee-210607.asp