Aug 31 (Reuters) – U.S. special envoy John Coale has said he hopes to secure the release of hundreds of additional prisoners from Belarus next month and will go there in person to try to seal the deal.
Coale, who said his diplomacy had already persuaded Belarus to free up to 800 political prisoners in return for the U.S. easing some of its sanctions on Minsk, made his comments to Voice of America’s Russian language service who published his comments on its website over the weekend.
“In a couple of weeks’ time, I’m planning to go to Belarus again, and I hope to secure the release of even more political prisoners. I think I’ll succeed,” Coale told VoA, saying he was aiming for a handover in the middle of September.
“We managed to secure the release of five hundred people, and then a further two hundred or so were released. So the actual figure is around 700–800 people. I hope to bring that number up to a thousand soon,” said Coale.
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is outside Belarus, told Reuters in June that the Trump administration had told her about a delay in its efforts to get President Alexander Lukashenko to free more political prisoners, but said she could not disclose why.
Coale, 79, was appointed by U.S. President Trump last year to head talks with Lukashenko. He has cultivated the former collective farm boss through long hours of talks and vodka-drinking sessions, sometimes quietly emptying his glass on the floor in order to stay sober.
(Reporting by ReutersEditing by Andrew Osborn)
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