BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

02/05/2008

Ten U.S. Diplomats Ordered To Leave Belarus As U.S. Mulls Closing Minsk Embassy

Jonathan Moore, the deputy mission chief at the U.S. Embassy in Minsk, said on April 30 that the Belarusian Foreign Ministry presented him that day with a list of 10 diplomats who have been declared persona non grata and must leave the country within 72 hours, Belapan reported. "We will do everything possible so that the U.S. diplomats leave the country within the required time limit," Moore said. He added that the continued imprisonment of three known political prisoners in Belarus is a more important issue than the number of U.S. diplomats present in the country. Moore identified the political prisoners as youth activist Andrey Kim, who was recently sentenced to 18 months in prison; businessman Syarhey Parsyukevich, sentenced to 2 1/2 years; and former presidential candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin, who is serving a 5 1/2-year term. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack on April 30 described Minsk's demand to reduce embassy staff to five as "unjustified and unwarranted." Washington has already cut its embassy staff from 32 to 15 people at the Belarusian government's demands, but the Belarusian Foreign Ministry on April 23 required Moore to provide a list of five diplomats who will stay in Belarus. The ministry justified the demand by saying that the United States is still continuing economic sanctions against Belarus's state petrochemical conglomerate Belnaftakhim, and preventing a "mutually acceptable settlement of the situation." AM

The United States has warned Belarus that it is considering forcing Minsk to withdraw all its diplomats from the United States in retaliation for Belarus's expulsion of 10 U.S. diplomatic personnel, Reuters reported on May 1, quoting a U.S. official who requested anonymity. "We made it quite clear both here and in Minsk that one of the options being considered was simply to pull our remaining staff out and then require them to do the same," the official said. U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the same day that Washington is still considering how to respond to Minsk's demand. "We have told them that we are considering the full range of options in terms of our respective diplomatic presences," Casey said. "At this point we have not made a decision to formally ask them, or informally ask them, to reduce staff further," he added. AM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2008/05/3-cee/cee-020508.asp

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