BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

03/06/2005

U.S. mulls freezing assets of Belarus officials

Jun 3, 2005 - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is considering freezing the assets of Belarussian officials and limiting their travel abroad to raise pressure on Belarus to allow greater freedoms, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

Washington is reviewing its Belarus policy as Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko has continued to crack down on independent media and opposition figures ahead of next year's presidential elections in which he is expected to seek a third term in the former Soviet republic.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in January branded Belarus one of six "outposts of tyranny" around the world and Washington has demanded its government allow greater freedom of speech, of the press and more open political activity.

Rice met Belarussian opposition leaders in April in a gesture of support for pro-democracy groups despite Russian concerns that the United States was interfering in its traditional sphere of influence.

Among steps being weighed in the U.S. policy review were freezing the assets of Belarussian officials, restricting their foreign travel by denying visas and limiting their access to international sports, cultural and political gatherings, said the State Department official who asked not to be named.

"Everything is, I think, under consideration. These are always matters on the table," said the official, who spoke at a briefing organized by the department.

In 2004, the United States and European Union imposed travel restrictions on Belarussian officials implicated in the disappearances of political opponents.

While saying the government was always reviewing policy, the official said the new focus reflected recent repressive steps by the Lukashenko government, next year's presidential election and the focus on the region amid the peaceful "rose" and "orange" revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine.

A Belarussian court on Tuesday sentenced two prominent opposition leaders to an unusually harsh sentence of three years of compulsory labor for organizing a rally denouncing Lukashenko.

Lukashenko, described by Washington as Europe's last dictator, has held power since 1994. A referendum last year, denounced by Western countries as rigged, allowed him to change the constitution and to run for a third term next year.

"The relationship between the United States and Belarus is not going to improve, obviously, with these kind of activities and can only deteriorate further," the official said of the crackdown on the media and opposition. Source:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=817436