[A-List] US demonization process in action, i.e. Belarus

["Annewilliamson" <Annewilliamson@xxxxxxx>]

All:

This is one of the most fascinating documents to have come my way in some
time.  The author, Daniel McAdams, is on Congressman in Ron Paul's staff
(R-Texas) and has been active with the British Helsinki Rights Group.
Before going to work for Dr. Paul, Dan reported from mostly Eastern Europe
on the 1990s fiasco there (which is how I initially came to know him).  The
problem with Lukashenko from Washington's point of view is that he refused
to privatize a la Harvard, kicked out the IMF and the World Bank.
Consequently, they have been demonizing him for years....yes, he's
emotional, yes, he's a former collective farm manager, yes, he's a
quick-tongued, hard-headed, heavy-handed "provincial,".....and yes, he's a
proud Belarussian!  He's also an elected leader, remains popular, and has
kept Belarus from suffering the total chaos that occured in Russia.  Though
not prosperous, the people have retained their social benefits -- and he has
stood up to Washington and the aid crowd many times, and said bluntly that
they are out to get Belarus's assets via "privatization"....thus, he is a
"dictator" and total villain.....now that Lukashenko is no longer convenient
to the Kremlin, it seems they have given the go ahead to DC to do with him
as they like.  You watch - they are after this small country's property,
determined to destroy its rather sweet and quaint society, if necessary.
And just read how the "Belarus opposition" speaks up!  Can't wait to get on
Uncle Sam's gravy train, volunteering to do whatever dirty work required to
get soft, warm places for themselves back home.....absolutely sickening.
Anyway, here is Stage One of the public process:  See the picture they are
creating, and how this horror must be overcome by the good and great of
America!  -A.


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Folks:

Thought you might be interested in what is cooking in Washington regarding
Belarus -- and what to expect as far as legislation goes for the next
Congress. Following are some notes I took at a very interesting conference
on Belarus today. I think there are some very interesting tid-bits herein.
Please feel free to contact me with any clarifications needed.

Rgds,

Daniel

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Notes from Axis of Evil: Belarus - the Missing Link
14 November 2002
American Enterprise Institute

At the door: "For security reasons, photo ID must be shown and credentials
must be verfied."

Impressions: Room was packed. Many more than I expected. Glancing at the
name tags, I noticed a very full representation of the alphabet soup
organizations: USAID, NDI, NED, IRI, CIPE, RFE, etc. All, no doubt, looking
for a great deal of the coming US governmental largesse to "restore
democracy" to Belarus.

What follows is a very rough sketch of what was said at the conference that
I noted. I would caution against viewing the following as direct quotes, but
in many places I did capture word for word what was said. I think there is
much in this, though it may be choppy to read. If you need any
clarification, let me know and I will likely recall whether the quote was
direct. This will look choppy, as I took down phrases rather than complete
paragraphs. It is meant to give an idea and impression of the tone and
content of the conference.

First up was Radek Sikorski, the MC of the gathering. Anyone who knows him
will need to hear no further. I had never seen him in person. I found him
ghastly - one of those scummy foreign types who are desperate to appear more
English than the very very English. I am sure most of you know more about
him.

Sikorski: Belarus is the last dictatorship in Europe. The political
opposition is arrested and intimidated. It was a courageous step for those
opposition members to have come to this conference that the (Belarusian)
administration does not agree with.

Fmr. Rep Sam Gejdenson: I have never seen an election as bad as Belarus. I
was in one voting center and there were three early election boxes, where
people had voted as long as a week before. We heard the election officials
arguing about the boxes, about how many there were. Apparently they felt
that Lukashenka was not doing well enough, as they found a fourth box.
Lukashenka was no doubt then doing better. I saw a woman with two ballots. I
asked her why she had two ballots. She said the officials gave her two. Then
she was quietly whisked away.

[Gejdenson then told the story of how his father was saved from the Nazis in
Belarus during the war.]

Our job in Belarus is to use the resources of the world community to give
the "small people" the political cover to move forward. We must pull
together every resource we have to free the Belarusian people.

Ambassador Michael Kozak: We must ask ourselves how a country once the most
advanced in the USSR could become the most impoverished. Poor policy
choices. In Belarus a balloon carrying two Americans was shot down and there
was no compensation paid. The president has dismissed parliament. And then
prominent opponents of the political regime began to disappear.

Union workers are allegedly fired for being insufficiently loyal to the
regime. Evidence mounted of arms transfers to countries of concern such as
Iraq. They have chosen the wrong side in the war on terror. They deny it
(that they have sold weapons to Iraq), but the lack of checks and balances
make it difficult to verify those denials. The United States will work with
European institutions. Further bad choices will bring further negative
consequences. Last year we gave $30 million in assistance to Belarus. We
gave assistance to each and every political party in Belarus. The democratic
community in Belarus is stronger than ever. They are united in pursuit of
basic goals and are gaining public support. When you look at the polls, each
opposition party has little support. But when you add them all up, it is
almost as much support as the president.

Noe we have increasing support from the Russians. When reform comes to free
Belarus from impediments we will see a Belarus that is free.

Hans-Georg Wieck: Belarus is the testing ground of the European community
and the transatlantic parties to support democratic elements in Belarus
against the regime. Nobody loves Lukashenka. What can bring about change?
The people (opposition parties) of Belarus will have a bright future
provided they seek support at home for the end of that authoritarian regime.
They need moral, political, and material support to take over again
tomorrow, next year, in five years...

Lukashenka withdrew support for the OSCE mission when he recognized that
there was an indigenous opposition force in Belarus. Women still had a
liking for this strong man Lukashenko, but most people turned against him.

My complaint against Russia is two-fold: Russian television did not
recognize that there were two candidates in the presidential elections and
Russia did not bring the opposition candidate over for a formal dinner
before the election. Russia stuck with Lukashenka and now they regret
it...now they regret it.

We can keep the OSCE mission in Belarus, but there is a danger that the
other party will not do what the international community says it should do.
That is a danger...

[Now a video is shown on "the disappeared", which is long on accusations but
offers no evidence whatsoever that the government was in any way involved.
Nevertheless the video clearly blames the regime in Belarus for kidnapping
and killing political opponents.]

Thomas Dine (President of RFE-RL, former director American-Israeli Public
Affairs Committee): That Belarus is an authoritarian state in the middle of
Europe in 2002 is a disaster. People ask me, when they hear that I am
president of Radio Free Europe, "isn't Europe already free"? I say to them,
"start by looking at Belarus and go eastward." In Belarus: unchecked state
security including regime death squads; a climate of fear; an unfree and
unjudicious judiciary; severe restrictions on the press, speech, and
religion; and unfree civil society, where NGOs are suppressed. RFE
broadcasts eight hours a day to Belarus. There is a Stalinist in Minsk.

Pavel Sheremet (made the film documentary mentioned above, formerly
imprisoned in Minsk): Almost every day I have to make myself remember Dmitri
Zavadsky. I am so grateful to the American organizations who protect human
rights, who help us remember the horrible regime of Lukashenka. Russia is
revising its policy toward Belarus as well because of the position of the
international community and the US. We have the assurance that Russia will
not allow this conveyor of death to continue.

Lukashenka could become a character in a detective story, as Dr. No in a
Fleming story. Lukashenka has serious plans for Russia. If these are
realized it will not become a Belarus problem: it will become a world
problem. We know about Lukashenka's support for the Iraq regime.

Irina Krasovskaya (wife of Anatoly Krasovsky, one of "the disappeared"): It
is unbelievable that all the authorities, including the KGB, cannot find
those four famous people. The authorities are part of this abduction. There
are witnesses. When the authorities came to my apartment they began taking
pictures. I asked them why they were taking pictures and they said it was to
look for blood - as if I was the one who killed my husband. The authorities,
by kidnapping these people, have achieved their goals: terrible, animal
fear. We are trying to find the facts of these cases. What is happening in
my country is terrorism.

Nina Shea (member of US Commission on International Religious Freedom and
director of the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House): Belarus as
seen by religious observers as the re-constitution of the Soviet Union.
Lukashenka has turned his back on the West. Belarus is the worst religious
oppressor in Europe. On Saturday it will have the most oppressive religious
law in Europe in effect. Catholic Churches have had difficulty. It does not
have native priests and the foreign priests have been thrown out of the
country. Jews have also been targeted. Anti-semitism is on the increase in
Belarus. The government printing house printed "The Protocols of the Elders
of Zion." Synagogues have been firebombed.

Our US ambassador is a thorn in the side of the Belarusian government, which
is good. He should speak out even further. U.S. civic society should focus
on religion. From a political view it is important to support beleaguered
religions.

We should press Russia to stop supporting Lukashenka in his mad and ruthless
quest.

Sikorski: Here is a message to Belarus: Lukashenka, we are watching you and
we will bring you to justice for this!

Mark Palmer (Fmr US Ambassador to Hungary): There is an informal alliance
between all these thugs (in the world). That Belarus works with Iraq should
be no surprise. They are unconstrained internationally. Until all these
thugs are drummed out of power, we will have more hunger, misery, and
terrorism.

Jan Maksymiuk (analyst, Radio Free Europe): Belarus is one of the world's
top in arms sales. Belarus is the most dubious supplier of arms in Europe.
Though there is no reliable information about who Belarus trades in arms
with, there is a good deal of data available about this.

Rafal Sadowski (analyst, Center for Eastern Studies, Warsaw): Belarus
exports fairly obsolete equipment inherited from the USSR. Belarus also
provided maintenance and training. Belarus and Russia work together to help
Libya. Belarus is often used as a front for Russia in arms deals, so that
the trail does not lead back to Russia.

Belarus rejects the geopolitical situation where the US is the sole power.
Belarusian authorities want a multilateral system and they cooperate with
countries opposed to the United States. They continue to criticize the US
and US policy. To Lukashenka, trade in arms, particularly to embargoed
states, is an important source of revenue. This practice will not end soon.

Question and Answer:

Q: What evidence is there that Russian policy toward Belarus is changing?

Weick: We have not heard specifically that this has changed, but we have
seen evidence that Russia has distanced itself from Belarus.

Sikorski: If the US enforces the UN resolution against Iraq, US soldiers may
come into harm's way because of Belarus. In this globalized world, these
things cannot be avoided.

Q: Does Ambassador Kozak have any real, reliable information on arms sales
from Belarus?

Kozak: We have some good information from inside Belarus. There is no
transparency, so it is difficult to say what it is. We have other
information from our intelligence sources, but I cannot reveal it because it
would compromise our sources and methods. We believe that Belarusian arms
trade with rogue states is continuing and intensifying.

Sikorski: Here is a second message to Lukashenka: Be careful Lukashenka, if
your buddy in Baghdad gets thrown out we will figure out what you have been
up to there.

Q. (Janusz Bugajski): If, as has been said, Russia is using Belarus as a
front for arms sales to rogue states, should Russia be in the same category
as Belarus, as a rogue state itself?

Palmer: We should put them all in the same basket. They should be treated
the same. Russia is there to a degree, but it is not as hardcore as Belarus.

Andrey Klimov (former member of Belarusian parliament sent to prison and
hard labor), by video and telephone from Belarus: This dictatorship exists
not only because of Lukashenka. We inherited it from the USSR. This person
who grew up in the Stalin era and the Brezhnev era [referring to Lukashenka,
I believe. -ed.]. We are Europeans. We think of ourselves as Europeans, as
the heirs of the great kingdom of Lithuania. The progressive West helped
Soviet citizens open their eyes to what was going on in that country. But
they have not completed this mission.

I cannot be there with you because we do not live in an open and democratic
society. We do not have freedom of movement. Lukashenka prosecutes any
journalist with the strength to speak out against this regime. I am happy to
not be there, because I did not share the fate of the disappeared.

Sikorski: I have another message for Lukashenka's goons are listening on
this line: there will be a democratic Belarus. You should abandon your
allegiance to this dictatorship!

Stanislav Shushkevich (former head of state, Belarusian Social-Democratic
Party, former USSR Communist Party and Supreme Soviet member): When
Lukashenka came to power, he called all those fighting for European values
as people of the West acting against Russia. Communism has been able to
reconstitute itself in Belarus. The Soviet KGB bolsheviks killed all the
intelligensia. Our dictatorship is not a soft one - it is very treacherous.
Lukashenka is involved in government terrorism. Lukashenka has a special
method of killing his political opponents.

But Belarus is now united - this is the achievement of Ambassador Wieck.
>From the communists and the extreme left to the centrists, we are now united
in opposition. There should be no step-by-step strategy and no concessions.
They don't work with Lukashenka. His goal is only one: to preserve power at
all expense. He has no family. He has no friends. He just pushed them all
away and let them be killed. We have only one language in Belarus. We will
resurrect Belarus.

Anatoly Lyabedzka (United Civic Party): I will be very cautious with my
words because I want to go back to Belarus. Belarus after Lukashenka will be
a sovereign country, unified into the economic and political life of Europe.
We have a clear idea of what should be done when Lukashenka goes down.
Joining the EU is our main aim. We have to be cautious. It is an important
internal task. Europe has too much socialism. Russia is not an exporter of
democratic values, it needs to import democratic values. We will return to
the constitution of 1994 or a similar temporary constitutional agreement. We
will return the functions to parliament that were taken by the November
coup. We need a revolution in personnel.

We will have a special place in the cemetery for the government press.

The price [to the West] is getting higher for ignoring Belarusian democracy.

Vincuk Viachorka: Belarus after Lukashenka is inevitable. It will be a place
where people don't disappear without a trace. Support for the dictator is
diminishing. Only 27 percent now support him, compared to 46 percent last
year. Some 66 percent of those with higher educations are pro-EU. 41 percent
do not perceive NATO enlargement as a threat.

Don't be surprised when Lukashenka starts stirring up religious animosity,
or language. It is one of the ways to destroy this pro-West orientation. Our
tradition of tolerance is evidence of our European origins.

What are the instruments to change the situation? On the last presidential
elections, OK, they were lost in formal figures. But millions of people
heard our views. As far as problems, there are too high expectations from
the former nomenklatura and from the Russian side. Now we have genuine
political parties, legally operating. We have the mass media which have
survived. We have self-sufficiency of the civil society. The best thing for
Russia is to stop its support for this regime. I hope there are levers here
to send the message. I have seen the Belarus Democracy Act offered here in
the House and the Senate. I hope it will pass with this new Congress. We
appreciate the work of NGOs to help Belarusian NGOs.

Questions:

Q: Could you say something about US support of Belarus?

Kozak: We support the independent media in Belarus. We support political
party development. We support ALL the democratic parties - we don't favor
one party. We support civil society development.

Senator John McCain: It is always a privilege to be in the company of
heroes, as are the people here from Belarus. Lukashenka's Belarus cannot
survive when the US and Russia have a strategic partnership. The US is
determined to do away with outlaw regimes that threaten us. Nato must
realize that in relations with Russia, it cannot abide a black hole of
dictatorship in Europe. We need a policy to liberate Belarus from the rule
of Europe's last tyrant. Russia has not changed much since 1991, we can see
that in the ruins of Grozny. Russia has supported the tyranny in Minsk. I
don't claim to know Lukashenka's fate, but the clock is ticking on his rogue
regime!

He presides over a government that despises him. He is a ruler who kidnaps
and kills his political enemies, who trains and equips rogue regimes.

Russia humiliated Lukashenka over the union of equals; he left Lukashenka
with nothing but his pride.

His illegal rule only survives as the quislings of Moscow.

It is time to pursue a new campaign to roll back the Belarusian
dictatorship, a regime which arms and equips those who will do us harm.

For the first time actions of the rogue government of Belarus threaten the
United States. US and allied lives may be lost because of a rogue regime in
Europe!

Belarus joins Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. They'd better change the way they
do business or they will go out of business!

September 11th opened our eyes to Belarus as a national security threat to
the US. We must drain that authoritarian cesspool!

This is in our interest: to transform Belarus into strong states and to help
market reform in Russia. It is in the US and Russian interest to remove
Europe's soft spot from the map. The US and its allies need to support
democratization and regime change in Belarus. NATO should suspend Belarus'
membership in Partnership for Peace and stop all contact with Belarus as
long as it is ruled by Lukashenka!

(I left before McCain's Q&A)