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Belarus Opposition Leader Appeals to UN to Stop Human Rights Abuses in Her
Country

Margaret Besheer

   NEW YORK - Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
   appealed to the United Nations on Friday to stop human rights abuses in
   her country, a month after the results of a disputed presidential
   election have led to the arrests of thousands of peaceful protesters.

   "The demands of the nation are simple," Tsikhanouskaya told an informal
   meeting of the U.N. Security Council by video from Lithuania, to which
   she fled after the results of the August 9 election were published.
   "The immediate termination of violence and threats by the regime,
   immediate release of all political prisoners, and a free and fair
   election."

   Tsikhanouskaya also called on the United Nations to condemn the use of
   excessive force by the Belarusian security services against protesters;
   to convene a special session of the U.N. Human Rights Council; and to
   send an international monitoring mission to Belarus to document the
   situation on the ground.

   She said there is a single obstacle to the people's demands being met.

   "This obstacle is Mr. Lukashenko, a man desperately clinging onto power
   and refusing to listen to his people and his own state officials," she
   said. "A nation cannot and should not be a hostage to one man's thirst
   for power. And it won't."

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