NEW YORK (AFP) — US President George W. Bush will meet with critics of the governments of Russia, China, Venezuela, North Korea, Myanmar and other countries in New York on Tuesday, the White House has said.
Bush and First Lady Laura Bush will "host a lunch for political dissidents where they will discuss how to advance the freedom agenda and the protection of the rights and dignities of all people," said spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore Monday.
They include chess legend turned Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov; Lodi Gyari, special envoy of the Dalai Lama; Myanmar monk U Kovida; Cuban journalist Omar Pernet Hernandez; and Sang Hak Park, president of "Fighters for Free North Korea," Lawrimore said in a statement.
Other guests include Gameela Ismail, wife of Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nour; Belarus opposition leader Alexander Kozulin; former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky; and Sierra Leone Foreign Minister Zainab Hawa Bangura.
The list also includes Vytautas Landsbergis, a member of the European Parliament from Lithuania; Radio Caracas Television chief Marcel Granier of Venezuela; Ausama Monajed for the Movement for Justice and Development in Syria; and founder of the outlawed China Democracy Party Xu Wenli.
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