Robert Boehme, director of the US State Department's Office of Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus Affairs, met with Belarusian opposition leaders.
Robert Boehme, director of the US State Department's Office of Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus Affairs, met with Belarusian opposition leaders at the US embassy in Minsk on January 26 to discuss the situation in Belarus and the country's place in an international context, reported the press office of the United Civic Party, told BelaPAN.
Attending the meeting were UCP leader Anatoly Lebedko; Vintsuk Vyachorka, chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front; Anatoly Levkovich, acting chairman of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party “Hramada”; Valery Ukhnalyov, secretary of the Central Committee of the Belarusian Party of Communists; imprisoned former presidential candidate Aleksandr Kozulin's wife Irina; Andrei Sannikov, Belarus' deputy foreign minister between February 1995 and November 2006; and Mikhail Marinich, Belarus' minister of external economic relations in 1994-98.
Mr. Boehme reportedly said the release of political prisoners is a priority of the USA's policy regarding Belarus. According to him, the USA does not consider it a mistake to raise the issue of Belarus and Dr. Kozulin's hunger strike at a session of the UN Security Council on December 12.
Opposition leaders expressed their common stance on the forthcoming Second Congress of Pro-democratic Forces and a general assessment of the situation in the country, the UCP press office said.