BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

06/04/2006

Belarus shrugs off opposition leader's Europe tour

By Andrei Makhovsky

MINSK (Reuters) - The Belarus Foreign Ministry on Thursday belittled a European tour by an opposition leader who lost a presidential election last month, but said Minsk was ready for a gesture of good will in its stand-off with the West.

The European Union branded the March 19 poll as neither free nor fair and is considering new sanctions against the government of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who was announced the winner and is due to be inaugurated on Saturday.

In a sign of mounting pressure on Minsk, key opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich received a warm welcome during visits to Poland, Austria, the European Parliament and European Union headquarters.

"The Foreign ministry does not comment on visits by individuals," said the ministry's chief spokesman, Andrei Popov. "We assume that there is even less point in such meetings after the polls than there was ahead of the election."

Popov said Minsk was not alarmed by a resolution denouncing the polls that is likely to be adopted by the European Parliament later on Thursday.

"We are sure that yet again such a document cannot expect serious consideration in Minsk," he said.

According to official election figures Milinkevich trailed far behind Lukashenko, who is genuinely popular despite a tough Soviet style of government that has made his 10-million-strong country a pariah in Europe.

Milinkevich's supporters staged unprecedented protests against what they called rigged polls, including a four-day non-stop vigil at a central Minsk square. They plan to hold another rally on Saturday to coincide with the inauguration.

More than 600 protesters, including opposition leader Alexander Kozulin and the former Polish ambassador in Belarus, Mariusz Maszkiewicz, were detained after the polls. Most of them were sentenced to short prison terms of up to two weeks.

Poland, Belarus' EU neighbour and the most vociferous of Lukashenko's critics, has said it does not recognise the polls and has demanded that Maszkiewicz, sentenced to 15 days in jail, be freed.

Popov said the Foreign Ministry was considering the case and indicated the ex-ambassador could be freed.

"The Polish note is indeed in the Belarus Foreign Ministry," he said. "I want to stress that we do not consider it as any kind of a demand.

"It may be considered by the Belarus authorities on the basis of principles of good will," he added.

However, Popov said Belarus was not ready to return its ambassador to Poland, recalled after the polls in protest against Warsaw's tough criticism.

Lukashenko, who according to the official tally won 83 percent of vote, starts a new five-year term on Saturday. He first came to power in 1994.

Source:

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-04-06T132520Z_01_L28170446_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BELARUS.xml&archived=False