BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

12/12/2006

Belarussian opposition leader wins Human Rights prize

Belarussian opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich today received the EU's top human rights award - the Sakharov Prize - in recognition of his fight for democracy in the ex-Soviet republic.

The prize is named after Andrei Sakharov, one of the best-known former Soviet dissidents, and was presented in Strasbourg.

It is awarded by the EU assembly annually to a person or group judged to have made a particular achievement in the field of human rights, defence of international co-operation or promotion of democracy and the rule of law.

Milinkevich ran unsuccessfully against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in elections in March and became the symbol of Belarus's persecuted opposition.

"This is a prize for all those who are imprisoned right now, for all those who got fired from their work. This is a prize for all those who, in my country, continue to fight for freedom. We are many," Milinkevich told the European Parliament, winning a standing ovation.

For the award, which is worth ?34,000, Milinkevich beat Ingrid Betancourt, a Colombian presidential candidate who has been missing since she was captured by rebels while campaigning in the jungle during the 2002 race, and Ghassan Tueni, the father of a Lebanese anti-Syrian critic slain in a car bombing.

The Cuban women's movement Ladies in White, Nigerian human rights lawyer Hauwa Ibrahim and the Reporters Without Borders media organisation were joint winner of last year's award, which was created in 1988 in honor of Sakharov, a Soviet nuclear physicist and human rights activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.

Other past winners include former South African President Nelson Mandela and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The award "reminds the wider world of the lack of freedom and democracy in Belarus, and shows the EU's commitment to a future in which Belarus will be free and democratic," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.

Milinkevich spent two weeks in jail following a protest on April 26 that attracted about 10,000 people, and was recently briefly detained three times.

He dedicated his prize to fellow dissident Alexander Kozulin, imprisoned since this spring's protests, who remains in critical condition after refusing to end his hunger strike, lasting more than 50 days.

"This prize is, of course, his," he said.

Lukashenko, who has ruled the nation since 1994 with an iron fist, earning him the nickname "Europe's last dictator", won another five-year term in the March vote.

He is accused of jailing his critics and quashing Belarus's independent media.

The EU has largely cut contacts with the government of Belarus, imposing financial sanctions and a travel ban on Lukashenko and other leaders it accuses of rigging elections and cracking down on opponents.

Milinkevich welcomed the ban, and pleaded with the EU not to increase the cost of visas to EU countries for Belarussian citizens to ?41 as planned.

"For the majority of Belarussians, this would be a true Berlin Wall," he said.

Source:

http://www.eveningecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=13298048&p=y3z98x94&n=13298136