[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 61 (Wednesday, May 5, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H2627]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              RECOGNITION OF UPCOMING ELECTIONS IN BELARUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cole). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, the world has seen some tremendous 
advancements in the last couple of months. We have had NATO enlarge 
with 10 new members. Just Friday we saw the EU expand also, now 
including 25 European nations. We do have a Europe united, whole and 
free. An exciting new thing about the new entrants to NATO and the new 
members of the European Union is that they are involved and they are 
engaged and they are dedicated to promoting freedom and democracy and 
liberty around the world, not just in our conflict with international 
terrorism; and many of the new entrants are part of the coalition of 
the willing, but also in neighboring states, being involved in helping 
promote the formation of democratic ideas, the formation of the rule of 
law, judicial courts. It is these new former Eastern Bloc countries, 
new entrants to the EU, new entrants to NATO that are engaged in 
transforming Europe to be united, whole, free and at peace.
  However, Mr. Speaker, there is a glaring exception in Europe and that 
exception is the nation of Belarus of which I speak just for a few 
moments tonight. Belarus is the last dictatorship in Europe. As we 
follow and as I follow and the Nation follows the upcoming elections, I 
want the people of Belarus to know that the United States will be 
watching these upcoming elections and that they have a partner that 
wants to ensure democracy wins.
  However, current events threaten those elections. Current events 
continue to plague the people of Belarus and those who want democratic 
reform and freedom. On May 3, Anatoly Lebedko, chairman of the United 
Civic Party, was questioned at Minsk's Sovetsky District Police 
Department over his alleged participation in the unsanctioned April 26 
Charnobylski Shlyakh (Path of Chernobyl) march in Minsk. The police 
alleged that Lebedko was an ``offender'' for participating in the march 
and continued their interrogation until it was proven with their own 
video of the event that Lebedko had not even been there.
  Despite that, Lebedko remains a target of the police and their 
harassment. Could it be that Lebedko has emerged as a threat to the 
current regime by advocating freedom and democracy? The important thing 
for the current regime in Belarus to understand is that Washington and 
the world are watching. The exciting thing about the upcoming election 
is that many of the parties that have for years been adversaries have 
been united, and they are united in forming a ticket from the UCP to 
the trade unionists. In fact, they call themselves the Group of Five, 
five diverse parties from the far left to the far right, united to have 
a strong presence on the ballot to give the people real choice, one 
choice that represents freedom and democracy versus an authoritarian 
totalitarian regime that we now find in Belarus.
  I ask my colleagues here in this House to continue to keep the people 
of Belarus in their prayers as we hope and pray that they are the next 
European country that moves to full, free, and unhindered democratic 
government and principles and joins the world of nations and the EU as 
strong participants in the battle for freedom.

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