Human rights activists appealed to Czech President Vaclav Havel on Thursday to
support the establishment of a "court of honor for European politicians" to bar
government officials who have violated rights, encouraged xenophobia or fueled
interethnic strife from entering other European countries.
The group said it was encouraged by the example of Belarussian President
Alexander Lukashenko, whom 14 European Union member countries have prohibited
from entering their territory.
"Today, however, the precedent set with Lukashenko looks isolated and unfair given
the presence in other European countries -- in Russia, in particular -- of politicians
still more deserving of his unenviable lot," the group wrote in a letter sent
to Havel on Thursday.
The signatories include three aging activists who held a bold demonstration on
Red Square in August 1968 to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia: Larisa
Bogoraz, Viktor Fainberg and Pavel Litvinov. After unfurling their banners, the
protesters were promptly arrested, jailed and sent into internal exile.
Although the activists on Thursday did not want to present a list of those they
would like to see barred from Europe, they cited such as examples as former President
Boris Yeltsin, who unleashed the first Chechen war; current President Vladimir
Putin, who launched the second; and Ulyanovsk's governor, General Vladimir Shamanov,
who was accused of tolerating widespread human rights abuses during his tour as
a top commander in Chechnya.