BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

Russia should push for change in Belarus, Poland says

REUTERS

10:59 a.m. July 29, 2005

WARSAW - Russia should do more to press Belarus - engaged in a worsening row with its western neighbor Poland - to respect human rights and democracy, a leading Polish diplomat said on Friday.

Warsaw has called for European Union help in protecting the Polish ethnic minority in Belarus after the ex-Soviet country's special forces stormed the offices of a Polish association on Thursday.

France expressed solidarity with the Poles on Friday, a day after the EU said it was worried about the situation in Belarus.

The raid was the latest in a series of moves against Poles in Belarus, which retains close ties to Moscow, after President Alexander Lukashenko - described by U.S. officials as Europe's last dictator - accused Poland of plotting an uprising.

"For a number of months we have been discussing (Belarus with our partners) ... and the overwhelming view is that we should talk to Russia about this issue more than we have in the past," Deputy Foreign Minister Jan Truszczynski said.

He told private radio TOK that an internationally accepted Belarus would be a much stronger ally for Moscow than it is now. The EU recently rejected visa applications by top Minsk diplomats in protest at Lukashenko's clampdown on the opposition.

"Until now, there was no will on the Russian side for such dialogue. Russia keeps repeating that Belarus is an independent country, that it decides for itself, that 'we have nothing to say here' - this is fiction," he said.

The EU said it would refrain from any concrete action against Minsk for now but France said it would push the bloc to adopt quickly a firm position on human rights in Belarus.

"We reiterate the call for the Belarus authorities to ... stop these actions, which are preventing the development of relations between the European Union and Belarus," a French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told a regular briefing in Paris.

"The pressure on (ethnic Poles) in Belarus is not only a bilateral problem between two countries but is telling of the development of power in Minsk."

Truszczynski said he also saw scope for coordinated diplomatic action.

"The EU and the United States are closely cooperating on Belarus and share the conviction that more can be done for democracy there. One way is by dialogue with Russia, if Russia believes that such talks would be in its interest."

(Additional reporting by Anna Willard in Paris)

Source:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20050729-1059-poland-belarus.html

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