BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

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Last Updated: April 20, 2005 23:53 EDT

Belarus Is Last `Dictatorship' in Heart of Europe, Rice Says

April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Belarus is the last dictatorship in the heart of Europe and its people are demanding democratic changes, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

``We are continuing to work to promote democratic development,'' Rice said yesterday in an interview from Moscow with Cable News Network, according to an e-mailed State Department transcript. ``If it brings about a democratic process, why is it a bad thing for people to throw off the yoke of tyranny and decide that they want to control their own futures?''

The U.S. government last October said a referendum that approved a third term for Alexander Lukashenko as president of the former Soviet republic fell short of international standards. The Belarus government said it isn't up to Rice to determine the country's future, Interfax news agency reported yesterday from Minsk, citing Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov.

Mass demonstrations have led to the overthrow of authoritarian governments in former Soviet republics, most recently last month in the central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan. Ukraine's government was ousted in the so-called Orange Revolution in November 2004 and Georgia's government in the December 2003 Rose Revolution.

Lukashenko has been president of Belarus, which has a population of 10 million people, since 1994. He extended his term after winning a referendum in 1996 and won a second five-year term in elections in 2001.

``The Belarussian people choose a government and it is for the Belarussian people and not Condoleezza Rice to decide about the future of the country,'' Interfax cited Martynov as saying yesterday in response to the secretary of state's remarks.

Russian Influence

The U.S. doesn't want to see Russian influence in the former Soviet states being diminished, Rice said yesterday in a separate interview with Ekho Moskvy Radio, according to an e-mailed State Department transcript.

``There is no reason for Russian influence in these areas to be less if it is based on transparent economic, trade, political ties,'' Rice said. ``We do not see the United States as somehow supplanting Russian influence. The United States and Russia should have good relations with those countries.''

Belarus in January criticized comments by Rice that included the country on a list of ``outposts of tyranny.''

Rice is today attending a meeting of foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Lithuania, which borders Belarus.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net

Source:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aipuCuH_hWGQ&refer=top_world_news