BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

11/12/2006

Belarus bars wife from jailed opposition activist

By Andrei Makhovsky

REUTERS

MINSK - The wife of a Belarussian opposition leader said on Monday prison authorities had barred her from visiting her husband until he ended a 52-day hunger strike, raising further fears about the state of his health.

Alexander Kozulin, one of two opposition figures who challenged President Alexander Lukashenko's re-election, is serving a 5-1/2 year term for his role in protests that following the proclamation of the results in March.

Kozulin, 51, started his hunger strike on Oct. 20, calling on Belarus's often divided opposition to unite and urging the West to take a tougher stand on its accusations that Lukashenko systematically crushes fundamental human rights.

His wife Irina said authorities at the prison in Vitebsk, northeast of Minsk, had turned down her request for a meeting and said none would take place until Kozulin ended his fast.

'They gave me no explanation. I was told by the prison administration that Kozulin already had the most liberal set of regulations and had enough visits,' she told Reuters.

'I think the authorities decided that there has been too much information on his hunger strike.'

She said Kozulin had lost more than 30 kg (66 pounds) since he began refusing food.

Kozulin was jailed on charges of incitement to disorder after ordering demonstrators in the aftermath of the election to march on a prison where their comrades were being held.

The United States and the European Union regularly dismiss Lukashenko's re-election as blatantly rigged and demand Kozulin's releae. Both have long accused the president of clamping down on the opposition and crushing independent media.

Both have barred entry to Lukashenko and about 30 other officials. Lukashenko dismisses criticism and says he has spared Belarussians the turmoil and poverty of other ex-Soviet states and remains broadly popular, especially outside the capital.

The EU's Commissioner for External Relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, on Monday restated the bloc's 'vigorous condemnation of the sentence passed on Mr. Kozulin and ask for his immediate release as well as of all those who are detained on political grounds'.

Ferrero-Walder also demanded the release of demonstrators held after a protest on Sunday in support of Kozulin. About 20 people were detained and were due to appear in court on Monday.

Opposition activist Sergei Skrebets, who saw Kozulin in prison along with the inmate's wife, said the ban on visits could be a sign his health had seriously declined.

'I fear that the reason visits have been denied is the state of Kozulin's health,' said Skrebets, released from prison last month after serving a 1-1/2 year term for economic crimes.

'I fear that Kozulin is simply in such a state that they are afraid to show

Source:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20061211-0532-belarus-opposition-hungerstrike.html

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