2003 press releases

Deputy Secretary Armitage Meets with Belarusian Human Rights Activist Krasovskaya (November 19, 2003)

Deputy Secretary Richard L. Armitage met on November 19 with Belarusian human rights activist Irina Krasovskaya. Ms. Krasovskaya's husband, Anatoly Krasovsky, was a well-known businessman who provided moral and financial support to Belarusian democracy and human rights advocates until his disappearance in September 1999. She is now in Washington to condemn lack of democracy and human rights in Belarus, to encourage Congress to pass the Belarus Democracy Act, to ask that the U.S. continue supporting democracy in Belarus and pressing the Lukashenko regime to reform, and to solicit assistance in pressing for an independent investigation of her husband's disappearance.

Deputy Secretary Armitage assured Ms. Krasovskaya of full-fledged U.S. support for human rights and democracy in Belarus. He underscored the United States' determination to continue pressing the Lukashenko regime for accountability in the cases of her husband and others who have disappeared, as well as our unwavering support for those who defend human rights in Belarus despite severe governmental repression.

Ms. Krasovskaya also met with Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky and officials of the Bureaus of European and Eurasian Affairs and Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Affairs. Ms. Krasovskaya will meet Special Assistant to the President and National Security Council Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights and International Operations Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli.

Ms. Krasovskaya is an active participant in "We Remember," a civic initiative that seeks justice for the disappeared and other victims of political repression in Belarus, which has raised awareness of the plight of the Belarusian disappeared in Europe, Russia, and the United States. Her vigorous campaign on behalf of those disappeared helped to win support for a U.S.-sponsored resolution at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in April 2003 that urged Belarus to establish accountability for the disappeared.