BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

26/01/2007

Belarus leader wants to learn from Europe

BERLIN, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko called on Europe to approach his isolated country, saying Minsk was ready to learn from the democratic West.

Lukashenko said Belarus -- branded by the United States as "Europe's last dictatorship" -- wanted to emulate prosperous European democracies, according to an interview published in Thursday's edition of the German newspaper Die Welt. Germany, as current holder of the European Union presidency, should play a key role in the rapprochement process.

"Chancellor Angela Merkel as EU president should develop more of an interest in Belarus," he said. "We want to be willing pupils. I want Belarus to look like Germany or Sweden one day."

Yet Belarus only caught Europe's attention when Lukashenko, its autocratic leader, at the start of the year bullied into a gas price row with Russia, which shortly interrupted westward flow of Russian oil.

Europe still holds a travel ban against Belarus politicians after a rigged election confirmed Lukashenko in his office. The leader said it was time to lift that "medieval ban."

"Until now the West has constantly kicked us in the back," he said. "Now the time has come to weigh new possibilities for cooperation. Let's start an open, honest dialogue."

German politicians are skeptical of Lukashenko's statements.

"The Belarus government cannot expect to be able to talk with the West and at the same time massively obstruct the opposition," Ronald Pofalla, secretary-general of Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union, told Friday's Tagesspiegel newspaper.

Source:

http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20070126-080510-7288r