US Helsinki Committee Calls On Belarus Government to Invite OSCE ODIHR Observers :: Charter'97 :: News

Heads of the US Helsinki Committee urged Belarus to allow the OSCE monitors to be present at the September 9, 2001 elections. “The refusal by the Belarusian authorities to issue mandates to the ODIHR OSCE mission, which sought to monitor presidential elections there, calls into question the fairness of the process,”– declared chairman of the Helsinki Committee senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell.

Long-term OSCE observers have to arrive in Minsk on August 1 in order to watch over the candidates’ registration process and the formation of local electoral commissions. Istanbul OSCE Charter obliges member-states to invite ODIHR mission to control their elections. ODIHR is the main European elections watchdog.

“Slightly more that four weeks are left before the elections and the time is running out, - added chairman Campbell: “Denial of entry into the country for ODIHR observers happened for the very first time, i.e. previously no member-state interfered with the ODIHR monitoring work.”

“Ban on the ODIHR’s monitoring is an open neglect of guarantees, that Belarus bound itself with – to do everything in its power to create conditions for the elections, which would meet international European standards,” – said co-chairman of the commission Christopher Smith. “Our alarm over the pre-election climate is increasing. We are mostly troubled by reports about the persecution of activists and independent observers, seizure of US-leased equipment, once used by an NGO and independent newspaper. Ministry of Justice’s statement last week, warning that publication of information about unregistered parties, trade unions and other organizations is also punishable by law, is quite fearful likewise.”

“Let us not harbor any illusions. In case the elections in Belarus are neither free nor fair, the isolation, to which Belarus dooms itself, will only intensify, while its relations with democracies, USA included, will further deteriorate,” – said Smith.