U.S. Senator: Do not encourage repressions of the dictator

• 21.08.2012, 9:30

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk called to cancel the World Ice Hockey Championship in Minsk.

"The International Ice Hockey Federation should suspend plans to hold the 2014 Ice Hockey World Championship in Belarus. President Lukashenka’s brutal crackdown on freedom of expression and assembly should not be rewarded by the IIHF. The international community should stand with the people of Belarus, not the dictator who denies them their basic human rights", - quoted words of the Senator website www.minsk2014.no (translation - charter97.org).

Recall, the World Ice Hockey Championship is scheduled in Belarus in 2014. In light of the ongoing human rights violations in the country, pro-democracy activists ask member countries to move the championship to another country.

In recent months MPs of many European countries spoke out against the hockey tournament in Belarus. A resolution to move the tournament to another country was adopted at the European Parliament. The same decision proposed the U.S. Congress and international human rights organizations.

As the website charter97.org reported, as a part of the project «Libereco - Partnership for Human Rights», Mark Kirk took patronage over political prisoner Mikalai Autukhovich contained in Grodno prison.