BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

22/04/2009

No political prisoners in Belarus: foreign minister

(RIGA) - Belarus has no political prisoners, and opposition members who have ended up behind bars have only done so after committing crimes, the ex-Soviet republic's foreign minister said Wednesday.

"Belarus doesn't arrest anyone for their political views," Sergei Martynov said during a visit to neighbouring Latvia.

"People of certain political views were detained for a specific criminal offence," he said, without elaborating.

Martynov's visit -- the first by a Belarussian foreign minister to European Union member Latvia for 11 years -- came ahead of an EU summit in Prague to which the bloc has invited Belarus's authoritarian President Aleksander Lukashenko.

Martynov confirmed that Lukashenko would attend the summit, which is slated to launch the EU's new "Eastern Partnership" policy with six former Soviet bloc states, including Belarus.

Participation by Belarus in the summit had been in question because of differences over Lukashenko's regime, dubbed Europe's last dictatorship by the United States.

Citing its dismal human rights record, including the jailing of opposition members and and charges of election rigging in 2006, the EU had placed Lukashenko and dozens of Belarussian officials on a travel blacklist.

The EU hailed the release last August of former presidential candidate Alexander Kozulin, but urged Minsk to go further. Concerns were also raised following September's parliamentary elections.

However, in recent months there has been a warming of EU-Belarus ties, to the irritation of Minsk's neighbour Russia.

Despite internal divisions in the 27-nation bloc, the EU has relaxed its travel ban, paving the way for Lukashenko to come to the summit.

Kozulin has blasted the decision to invite Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994.

Latvia and Belarus enjoy relatively friendly ties, despite having followed very different paths since independence from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991.

Latvia is firmly anchored in the West, having joined both the EU and NATO.

Source:

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1240407122.79

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