David Kramer: “Belarusian Government Has Two Paths” :: Charter'97 :: News

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs David Kramer has stated a necessity for by Belarusian authorities to make a number of steps aimed at democratization of the situation in the country. Otherwise, David Kramer said, relations between Belarus and the US are “to deteriorate considerably”. “My message [to the Belarusian authorities] has been very clear, which is that the government here can take one of two paths. They can lead to an improvement in relations between Belarus and the United States by taking specific concrete steps. Specifically, releasing all political prisoners, and I mean all political prisoners, and dropping charges against others, including from Young Front; and allow events tomorrow to take place peacefully, and allow regional and national Congresses [of democratic forces] to be held in Belarus without any problems. In absence of those steps I fear that relations could deteriorate. Under Belarus Democracy Reauthorization Act Congress passed and President Bush signed, we have additional steps we can take to increase the pressure upon the government. I hope they won’t be necessary. But the ball is in the court of the government of Belarus,” stated David Kramer at a press-conference in Minsk.

The representative of the State Department has underlined that the situation in Belarus has deteriorated over the last few months. He mentioned the events on March 25 and oppositionists’ arrests before and after Freedom Day.

As said by Mr. Kramer, “the real test” for the Belarusian government would be “handling of political prisoners”. “In terms of what we might do if the government of Belarus takes this first step, given that the level of our relations is fairly low right now, that’s quite a distance that we have to go. And part of those steps would include positive acknowledgement of any serious concrete steps Belarusian government would take. I would admit to you that it is rear that state department or Washington speaks of Belarus and its government positively. But there are other things we can do including taking another look at the punitive we have undertaken. But at the moment this is a hypothetical question. But suffice it to say we are prepared to respond in a positive way if the government of Belarus takes serious positive steps”. “but just as a positive steps we might take negative steps…We can expand the visa ban. And what Belarus Democracy Reauthorization act allows us to do, is a public knowledge, as the Act is public. It would give us the option of imposing sanctions against some state-owned enterprises. And it gives us other options as well. But suffice it to say we would make some decisions really soon…We hope we’ll have reasons to take positive steps. But the US is ready to increase pressure if necessary,” David Kramer said.

David Kramer added he planned to arrive to Minsk a few months ago, but couldn’t get Belarusian visa. As said by him, visa hadn’t been denied to him. He simply wasn’t granted visa despite several requests and applications.

During his visit to Minsk, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State had meetings with Foreign Minister Syarhei Martynau, Deputy Head of the presidential administration Pyatkevich, leaders and activists of opposition, representatives of the civil society and human rights and students’ groups, families of political prisoners and the disappeared. It is worth mentioning that David Kramer met with Natalya Pyatkevich, Deputy Head of the presidential administration, on her initiative. The meeting was held in one of Minsk coffee shops and not in a governmental building. The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State delivered his message for her to hear directly about the position of the US government. He used the opportunity to spell out for her very clearly about two paths and laid out minimal steps the US expects to see from the government of Belarus: release of all political prisoners, dropping charges against others, allowing tomorrow protest to take place peacefully, and to allow the congresses to take place.

“I hope government understands my words last year were not empty threats,” David Kramer said. “We’ve been hearing rhetoric statements about improving relations with the West for over several months. But I don’t think we’ve seen much evidence to suggest that there were specific steps to back that rhetoric”.