Anatol Lyabedzka, leader of the United Civic Party, an opposition party in Belarus, will attend The Axis of Evil: Belarus--The Missing Link conference being organized by the New Atlantic Initiative (NAI) at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) on Thursday, November 14, 2002. Mr. Lyabedzka will join keynote speaker Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) and other participants in Washington, D.C.

The Belarusian KGB detained Anatol Lyabedzka on the morning of November 5, after he retrieved his conference invitation from the American embassy in Minsk. Even as an elected member of the former Belarusian parliament--which had been disbanded by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko--Mr. Lyabedzka was abducted by armed thugs and detained. Evoking the darkest days of Stalinist terror, Mr. Lyabedzka’s captors warned him that attending the NAI conference might result in prosecution for high treason and collaboration with foreign “spies” e.g., for his contacts with Western human rights groups.

Mr. Lyabedzka’s detention and similar acts of intimidation prove yet again the urgent necessity for discussing the violation of human rights in Belarus. Alexander Lukashenko proves once again that he is an embarrassment to Europe. Many of the regime’s opponents have disappeared, newspapers have been shut down, churches have been wrecked, and ambassadors have been thrown out of their residences. Opponents of Mr. Lukashenko risk their lives, and Mr. Lyabedzka is now a marked man. Despite the threats, Mr Lyabedzka is on his way to speak to us.

The Axis of Evil: Belarus--The Missing Link conference program is available online. Registration will open at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday, November 14, 2002 at AEI, in the Wohlstetter conference center on the 12th floor, 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.

This conference is cosponsored by Freedom House, the International League for Human Rights, the International Republican Institute, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Pattis Family Foundation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the United States Embassy in Belarus.