The UN official delegation requested Mr. Severin, the special rapporteur for Belarus, offer his apologies to the Belarusian people

30.03.2005.

Alies Bialiatski, Chair of the Human Rights Center Viasna, who is now taking part in the 61st session of the UN Committee for Human Rights in Geneva, commented on the events around the report on the human rights in Belarus in this way:
“The report presented by the special rapporteur on Belarus of the Human Rights Committee Adrian Severin is quite negative an so triggered a nervous reaction of official Minsk. S.Aleinik, head of the Belarusian delegation in UN, commenting on A.Severin’s speech, said that the report has been very much politicized, aims at overthrowing the incumbent government and is modeled on the statements produced by the US Department of State. Aleinik said the report degrades the Belarusian people, and demanded A.Severin should offer his apologies to the Belarusian people. Aleinik’s speech was supported by the representatives of Russia, Cuba and Kenya. China’s representative doubted the veracity of the report produced by the special rapporteur, saying that A.Severin has not visited Belarus during this year. The report was supported by the representatives of the USA, and of Luxembourg who spoke on behalf of all EU nations and Canada”.
It should be noted that this is yet another draft resolution on Belarus to be discussed by the UN Committee for Human Rights.
Within the following few days representatives of the Belarusian non-governmental organizations plan to have meetings with the national delegations to brief them on the human rights situation in Belarus.
Alies Bialiatski also said that on 29 March after the briefing conducted by the Belarusian non-governmental organizations in the Palace of Nations he met with Adrian Severin, the special rapporteur on Belarus of the Human Rights Committee, to discuss the current situation.

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