Watchdog

VITEBSK, Belarus -- Authorities in Vitebsk are not allowing Belarusian opposition leader Alyaksandr Milinkevich to meet with locals.

Milinkevich, the head of the Za Svabodu (For Liberty) opposition movement, was planning to hold an open meeting with citizens in Vitebsk's Brigantina Cinema on December 10. But the Mayor's Office refused to grant permission for the meeting to take place.

The Za Svabodu movement's coordinator in Vitebsk, Khtystafor Zhaliyapav, told RFE/RL's Belarusian Service that Milinkevich will hold the meeting in a different manner.

Milinkevich ran against incumbent Alyaksandr Lukashenka in the presidential election in March 2006.

Germany and France have written a letter to the Uzbekistan government, urging it to allow a Human Rights Watch (HRW) representative to work in the country.

In the letter, French Human Rights Minister Rama Yade and German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler said Uzbekistan should grant work accreditation to HRW representative Igor Vorontsov.

Human Rights Watch said in July that Uzbekistan had barred Vorontsov from the country despite the fact that the EU had made accreditation of an HRW representative a condition for the lifting of sanctions on the Central Asian state.

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