BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
21/01/2010
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Resigns Amid CIA Prison Row
Associated Press
VILNIUS, Lithuania-Lithuania's foreign minister said he was resigning Thursday after locking horns with the president over CIA secret prisons and relations with neighboring Belarus.
A parliamentary investigation in December found that Lithuania's national security agency had helped the U.S. intelligence service set up two detention facilities in the Baltic country, though it found no evidence that they actually held prisoners.
Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas has said two facilities set up in 2002 and 2004 were never used to interrogate terror suspects.
President Dalia Grybauskaite has said, however, that she believes suspects were held at the prisons, and she admonished the minister for publicly expressing a different viewpoint.
The minister has also clashed with the president over foreign policy, with Mr. Usackas advocating a tougher stance toward Belarus and its authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko.
"Considering the present situation I am announcing my resignation," Mr. Usackas told reporters, adding he would hand in his resignation later Thursday.
Mr. Usackas, 45, is the third minister to resign from Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius's government since it took office in December 2008.
Analysts said Mr. Usackas' departure will not undermine the center-right coalition, which is grappling with a severe recession.
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