br23 blog - minsk, belarus

[photo 2] [photo 3] [photo 4] [photo 5]

Feb.27.2006 — At a White House meeting today, two wives of disappeared public figures in Belarus obtained assurances from President George Bush of continued support for human rights in Belarus. “We are pleased that the President made himself personally available to demonstrate his deep concern for issues like disappearances in the heart of Europe on the eve of what will likely be unfair Presidential elections March 19,” Robert Arsenault, President of the International League for Human Rights, who attended the meeting, commented. President Bush met with Svetlana Zavadskaya, wife of cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky who disappeared in 2000, president of the Dmitry Zavadsky Foundation and with Irina Krasovskaya, president of the We Remember Foundation.

Krasovskaya (Krasouskaja) was first introduced to Bush by Xavier Solana in Istanbul, during a NATO summit several years ago as a wife of a “disappeared politician.” Her husband actually was a businessman and never engaged in political activities, but he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time: namely, in the sauna together with his friend Viktar Hanchar, a big opposition politician, when Lukashenka’s “death squadron” attacked, abducted and probably killed them. Krasovskaya used this truly tragic event in her personal life to launch her own political career. She’s already met Bush twice. The only question I have: how will that really help Belarus (except for being a publicity stunt)?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 1st, 2006 at 10:38 am and is filed under Belarusian politics, America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.