BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

25/03/2007

EU Urges Belarus To End 'Self-Imposed Isolation'

BERLIN (AP)--The E.U. sought to include Belarus in its 50th birthday celebrations Sunday, assuring citizens of a country denounced in the West as Europe's last dictatorship that they have a place in the "European family" of nations.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the European Union wanted to have a "full partnership" with Belarus that would improve the quality of life in one of the continent's poorest countries.

"I am confident that the people of Belarus sees this outstretched hand as an opportunity to choose a democratic future," Barroso said in a statement. "I very much hope that the government of Belarus will reciprocate, beginning the reforms their people need and ending their self-imposed isolation."

The E.U.'s birthday celebrations coincided with what the opposition in Belarus calls Freedom Day - the anniversary of the 1918 declaration of the first, short- lived Belarusian state.

Opponents to the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko aimed to rally thousands of supporters for a protest in Minsk, but police blocked off the main square of the capital, where demonstrations last year ended with police clubbing defiant demonstrators and detaining hundreds.

Facing increased economic pressure from Russia, which raised gas and oil prices for Belarus this year, Lukashenko has begun to speak about improving ties with European nations that have long denounced his repressive regime.

Both the opposition and E.U. officials have called Sunday's march a real test of whether Lukashenko's government is ready for a new dialogue with Europe.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the story of East Germany overcoming its Cold War isolation from the West offers "great hope to those in Europe who must still suffer under repression - such as people in Belarus."

"We think of them today and say to them: human rights are indivisible," she said. "Europe is on your side," she added, to applause from other leaders at the E.U.'s birthday summit.

Barroso added that an opening to the E.U. could see a "significant" increase in European aid to Belarus.

"I look forward to the day when Belarus takes its rightful place in a European family that shares the values of democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law, and that yearns for long-lasting shared peace and prosperity," he concluded.

Source:

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20070325%5cACQDJON200703250637DOWJONESDJONLINE000298.htm&