BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
23/04/2009
Lukashenko Attacks Czech President Comments, Domestic Opponents
MINSK, Belarus (AFP)--Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko Thursday blasted his Czech counterpart Vaclav Klaus for being "bad-mannered" and slammed domestic opponents as "enemies of the people."
The comments came after the leader was invited to an E.U. summit in Prague next month during a Western effort to reach out to Belarus, prompting objections from Lukashenko's critics at home and abroad.
"I want to say in front of the diplomats present - if anybody will be made uncomfortable on May 7 by Belarus's presence then don't invite us," Lukashenko said in a speech to parliament.
"Just don't be bad-mannered about it, as I recently heard through the media, [ when] a certain top Czech official said, 'I will not extend my hand to him'."
His ire was a clear response to Klaus's statement last week that he would not shake hands with Lukashenko or receive him at Prague Castle.
The E.U. invitation to Belarus to participate in the meeting has sparked controversy, with many saying the bloc shouldn't deal with the man once dubbed Europe's last dictator.
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country holds the rotating E.U. presidency, personally handed Lukashenko an invitation last Friday, but the Belarussian leader hasn't yet said whether he will attend.
Observers Thursday viewed Lukashenko's hardline speech as a challenge to the European leaders ahead of the summit.
Relations between Europe and the ex-Soviet republic have warmed in recent months. The E.U. said its long-term engagement with Belarus will depend on signs of improvement in the country's human rights record.
Lukashenko, however, railed against his domestic critics in Thursday's speech.
"The opposition writes letters to the E.U. leadership asking them to ban Lukashenko from traveling to Prague, saying he is a bad guy," he said.
"This is not an opposition. These are enemies of the people," Lukashenko said, using a terminology common during the Stalin era.
"A few charlatans, derelicts and lowlifes have understood liberalization as 'I can do what I please' ... And even some foreign diplomats have started to rebuke us," he said.
"We were talking about a liberalization of the economic life of the country; We have enough political liberalization," he said.
The Prague summit is dedicated to an Eastern Partnership programme intended to develop the E.U.'s ties with six non-E.U. states in the former Soviet Union, also including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
"Lukashenko hasn't made a decision yet on whether to travel to Prague, but it's only too obvious that he wants to," Minsk-based independent analyst Alexander Klaskovsky told AFP on Thursday.
"It would be a clear come-back for his politics - a sign that Europe has capitulated," he added,
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