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US president mentions Belarus among eight nations that "still oppress their citizens"

While there is progress in freedom's advance, nations such as Belarus, Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, Iran, Sudan, and Zimbabwe "still oppress their citizens," US President George Bush said in his proclamation on Captive Nations Week annually observed in the United States.

"My Administration recently created the Human Rights Defenders Fund to provide grants for the legal defense and medical expenses of democratic dissidents arrested or beaten by repressive governments," Mr. Bush said in his message. "In addition, we have nearly doubled funding for democracy projects throughout the world."

"Expanding freedom is a moral imperative, and today more people are free than ever before. Freedom is reaching around the world, and America is working side-by-side with new democracies in Liberia, Mauritania, Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan," Mr. Bush noted.

"The American people believe that the flame for freedom burns in every human heart, and that light cannot be extinguished by governments, terrorists, or tyrants," the US president stressed.

The US Congress, by a joint resolution adopted on July 17, 1959, authorized and requested the president to issue a proclamation designating the third week in July of each year as Captive Nations Week.