BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

21/03/2008

U.S. Cuts Off Visas in Minsk in a Dispute With Belarus

By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

MOSCOW - The United States Embassy in Minsk has temporarily stopped issuing visas to citizens of Belarus in response to pressure by the government there to reduce its personnel. Tensions between the countries have intensified in recent weeks in response to sanctions that the United States has imposed on Belarus, its top state-owned businesses and senior officials.

Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the country's authoritarian president, has preserved Belarus as a museum-quality relic of the Soviet Union. As retaliation for vocal criticism from the United States of the government's shoddy human rights practices, Belarus has recently moved to squeeze the American Embassy in Minsk.

The State Department said Thursday that the situation on the ground had forced the embassy to temporarily suspend its visa services. It said officials were reviewing the government's request to greatly reduce its staff of 30 to 40 people.

The Belarus government also pressured Karen B. Stewart, the United States ambassador, to return to Washington last week.

On Thursday, Andrei Popov, a spokesman for the Belarus Foreign Ministry, said dialogue with the United States would resume after "the removal in full of sanctions against Belarussian subjects," the official BelaPAN news agency reported.

The United States imposed sanctions against Mr. Lukashenko and other members of his government after the police arrested dozens of protesters at opposition demonstrations following presidential elections in March 2006. Last November, the Treasury Department froze the assets of the state energy and chemical company, Belneftekhim.

Washington has also demanded the release of imprisoned opposition figures. Belarus recently freed five people the United States considered political prisoners, but continues to hold Aleksandr V. Kozulin, a former presidential candidate.

Mr. Lukashenko told the Austrian Press Agency on Thursday that deteriorating relations with the West could force Belarus deeper into Russia's orbit, BelaPAN reported. "Considering the massive pressure by the West on Belarus, I think that in the near future our relations with Russia will become closer," he said.

Meanwhile, a New York-based lawyer and American citizen appears to be in custody in Minsk along with his assistant after their arrest on March 12 shortly after they arrived in the capital. The reason for the arrest of the lawyer, Emanuel Zeltser, remains unclear. A spokeswoman from the American Embassy in Moscow said the State Department could not comment on the case.

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/world/europe/21belarus.html?ref=world

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