BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

May 5, 2005 2:22PM

Bush Seeks To End Belarus Dictatorship

"One of the roles the United States can play is to speak fairly about the need for Belarus to be free ... and make sure that the elections are free," Bush said in the interview recorded Wednesday in Washington.

Bush called Belarus the last dictatorship in Europe in an interview broadcast Thursday, and said the United States would work with countries in the region to ensure the next elections in the former Soviet republic were fair.

Bush also told Lithuanian state television he would remind Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Soviet occupation of the Baltics when they meet in Moscow for the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.

"That is the last remaining dictatorship in Europe," Bush said about Belarus, which has been ruled for 11 years by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

"One of the roles the United States can play is to speak fairly about the need for Belarus to be free ... and make sure that the elections are free," Bush said in the interview recorded Wednesday in Washington.

The next presidential elections in Belarus are set for 2006.

In a separate interview with Estonian state television, Bush said he would talk to Putin next week about Russia's democracy and human rights situation.

"I believe that Russia's interests lie to her west. I believe that Russia, by embracing values that we share, will be able to deal with the many problems that she has," he said.

"Russia's got enormous problems. Of course I will talk to President Putin about that," he said, adding that the U.S.-Russia relationship was not antagonistic.

Bush spoke to television networks from the three Baltic countries ahead of a European tour that begins Friday in Latvia.

In a boost to Baltic leaders' efforts to make Russia denounce the Soviet occupation of the Baltics during WWII, Bush told the Lithuanian network he would remind Putin that the end of the war did not bring freedom for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

"Yes, of course I'll remind him of that," Bush said, adding that he told Putin during their last meeting in Slovakia that the end of the war was not a day of celebration for the Baltics.

In Latvia, Bush will meet with his Baltic counterparts Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia, Arnold Ruutel of Estonia and Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus.

Vike-Freigberga will attend the Moscow celebrations, but Ruutel and Adamkus declined their invitations because of Russia's unwillingness to denounce the Soviet annexation of their countries.

"I respect all the decisions of the three leaders," Bush said. "But I did make it clear to President Putin that people (in the Baltics) do not feel this is a liberating moment, and hopefully he will work with the Baltics in a cooperative way, because it really is in Russia's interest to have free countries and democracies on her border."

Russia denied Thursday that it illegally annexed the Baltic nations in 1940.

"One cannot use the term 'occupation' to describe those historical events," said Sergei Yastrzhembsky, Russia's point man on relations with the European Union.

"At that time, the troop deployment took place on an agreed basis and with the clearly expressed agreement of the existing authorities in the Baltic republics," Yastrzhembsky said in Moscow.

In the Lithuanian interview, Bush also praised the Baltic country for supporting the democratic movement in Ukraine and for helping in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Source:

http://www.newsfactor.com/worldview/story.xhtml?story_id=0110018RB20S


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