BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
12/03/2008
U.S. envoy to leave Belarus temporarily: opposition
By Andrei Makhovsky
MINSK (Reuters) - U.S. ambassador Karen Stewart will leave Belarus on Wednesday after authorities urged her to return to Washington, an opposition leader in the former Soviet republic said.
"She is leaving the country today," Anatoly Lebedko of the United Civic Party told Reuters after meeting Stewart.
"She said the decision was made after Belarussian authorities again recommended that she go. She sees this as a temporary departure."
Belarus, accused in the West of violating fundamental rights, recalled its ambassador to the United States last Friday and urged Stewart to leave Minsk.
The U.S. embassy said it would issue a statement later. Officials in Washington have described Belarus, led by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, as Europe's last dictatorship.
The U.S. State Department initially said Stewart, one of the most outspoken ambassadors in Minsk, would remain as no specific order telling her to go had been issued.
Belarussian officials, committed to improving relations with the West, said they acted in response to what they saw as new sanctions against national oil products firm Belneftekhim.
Western countries have imposed a range of sanctions against Belarus. The United States and European Union have barred entry to Lukashenko on grounds that he rigged his 2006 re-election.
Lukashenko has been trying to improve relations with the West, particularly the EU, after quarrelling with Russia over energy prices. EU countries have suggested in recent weeks that a September parliamentary election could lead to better ties.
But the president threatened to expel Stewart late last year if new sanctions were imposed against his country of 10 million wedged between Russia and three EU states.
Sanctions were introduced against Belneftekhim last year, prohibiting Americans from doing business with it and freezing any assets it has under U.S. jurisdiction. U.S. officials say a note issued last week implied no new punitive measures.
As part of moves to improve relations, courts have in recent months freed several opposition activists considered by the West to be political prisoners.
But the country's most prominent detainee, Alexander Kozulin, is still serving a 5-1/2 year term for helping organise protests against the president's re-election.
(Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky, writing by Ron Popeski)
Source:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL1288678920080312
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