BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

12/12/2006

Belarus Opposition Leader Awarded EU Human Rights Prize

MosNews

Belarus opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich on Tuesday was awarded a prestigious European prize for freedom of thought, underlining growing European Union toughness on the country which it considers Europe's last dictatorship, DPA reports.

European Parliament President President Josep Borrell awarded Milinkevich the prize, endowed with 50,000 euros, during a plenary session in Strasbourg.

The Sakharov prize is given every year by the European Parliament to people who have stood up for human rights or freedom. Previous recipients include Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan.

The award comes after EU governments this week widened travel bans on top Belarusian officials including President Alexander Lukashenko.

Milinkevich ran against Lukashenko in the March 2006 presidential elections, which the EU and the US condemned as seriously flawed. The opposition leader was held in a Minsk jail for two weeks after the elections.

In February, Milinkevich had asked EU lawmakers for their support, but Belarus authorities denied a delegation of MEP election observers entry to the country.

The parliament's annual human rights prize is intended to honour exceptional individuals who combat intolerance, fanaticism and oppression.

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, after whom the prize is named, was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist who advocated civil liberties and reforms in the Soviet Union. In 1970, he founded a committee to defend human rights and victims of political trials and in 1975 won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Earlier this year, the EU added four more Belarusian officials to a list of 31 - including Lukashenko - banned from entering the bloc because of their involvement in a crackdown on democracy.

Source:

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/12/12/milinkevichaward.shtml

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