Statement of Chairman Benjamin A. Gilman
Supporting Belarusian Democratic Opposition

May 24, 2000

Ladies and Gentlemen, I want to thank Lorne Craner and all those affiliated with the International Republican Institute for hosting this event tonight.

I also want to thank my good colleague -- a Member of the Democrat Party -- Sam Gejdenson of Connecticut, for his hard work in passing through our House of Representatives a strongly-worded resolution that expresses our outrage over what is happening in Belarus today.

Most of all, I want to thank our guests, Dimitry Bondarenka,Anatoly Lebedka, and Vintsuk Viachorka,for their courage in standing up to the worst dredges of the former Soviet regime, the illegitimate government of Alexander Lukashenka.

The situation in Belarus today is nothing less than dictatorship - dictatorship supported by the government in Russia.

We have come too far to see this kind of Soviet-style repression take place in Belarus today.

It is nothing less than shocking that leading opposition figures have disappeared, that a large police force is deployed against the people, that people are arrested and beaten, and that the mass media is controlled by the state while the independent press is subject to restrictions and censorship.

What is more shocking is that this issue has held such a low place in the agenda between Washington and Moscow.

President Clinton should recognize that this dictatorship in Belarus is a cancer that is eating at the heart of our efforts to support democracy not just in that country, but all across the states of the former Soviet Union.

Those who would create dictatorships in other capitals can only take heart when they see the United States stand back and allow the illegitimate regime in Belarus continue using Soviet-era brutality and tactics against the Belarusian people without any serious challenge.

It is time that the American government concretely backed up those who are fighting for freedom in Belarus.

The most direct way to do that - as the United States Congress has stated clearly and loudly -- is to insist that the Russian government cease its financial support for the Lukashenka regime and cease its illegitimate efforts to integrate that regime into its own sphere of government.

Let's stop avoiding the issue.

Russia supports this regime and supports it in ways that are vital to Lukashenka.

We all know it.

It is time for President Clinton to go to Moscow and make this a top issue, not just say when he returns to Washington that he discussed it with Russian officials.

This dictatorship must end, and if those in charge in the Kremlin don't agree, then they do not support democracy in Belarus - and their concern for democracy in Russia itself must be seriously doubted.

Once again, thank you for visiting our Congress.

Thank you for what you are doing for the sake of democracy in Belarus - and in Europe!

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