BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

Jun 23, 2005, 12:55 GMT

Belarus accuses Council of Europe assembly of bias

Minsk, 23 June: The spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry lashed out at the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), saying that the human rights body does not have an impartial view of the situation in Belarus and lacks any tools to influence it.

The hard-hitting comments by Ruslan Yesin, deputy head of the ministry's information office, came a day after the PACE subcommittee on Belarus approved a draft memorandum chiding Belarus authorities over the ongoing crackdown on political opponents and independent media outlets, and calling for specific steps to unseat Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's government.

"At present, the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly is reaping the fruits of its counterproductive policy that has in fact removed the assembly from the political dialogue with Belarus," Yesin told Belapan.

According to the official, the Belarusian government has repeatedly stressed that the Council of Europe's reluctance to cooperate with the country "has no prospects".

The draft memorandum discussed by the PACE subcommittee "contains no constructive proposals but is a mere repetition of earlier accusations against our country", Yesin said.

The spokesman accused members of the subcommittee of being guided "by political ambitions rather than by the true intention to cooperate with Belarus".

Source: Belapan news agency, Minsk, in English 1130 gmt 23 Jun 05

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Source:

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/mediamonitor/article_1020117.php/Belarus_accuses_Council_of_Europe_assembly_of_bias