BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/08/2006

The Sodomy Charges

Latvia recalled from Minsk its Ambassador to Belarus Maira Mora yesterday. A day before, it declared persona non grata Dmitry Krayushkin, 1st secretary of Belarus' embassy in Riga. The diplomatic war of these two countries was unleashed July 25, once Belarus police searched the apartment of Reimo Smits, 2nd secretary of Latvian embassy in Belarus, blaming homosexuality and dissemination of pornography on him.

Latvian Ambassador to Belarus Maira Mora was recalled to Riga to canvass relations of both countries with Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks. A day before, Latvian Foreign Ministry declared persona non grata Dmirty Krayushkin, 1st secretary of Belarus embassy to Riga, and ordered him to leave the country within a day.

These moves of Latvia continued the feud sparkled July 25. On that day, Belarus police searched the apartment of Reimo Smits, 2nd secretary of Latvian embassy in Belarus, and confiscated his personal belongings and a few videotapes.

After the search, Riga rebuffed by blaming on Belarus the breach of the Vienna Convention of 1961 that grants immunity to diplomats and their apartments.

Belarus kept silence for a few days, but on July 30, broadcast a videotape, which showed two men making love in Reimo Smits' apartments. Neither faces nor genitals were shown, but an off-camera announcer called one of the men Reimo Smits. Enforcement officials claimed the police searched an apartment of a pornography seller, who happened to be a diplomat. The officers apologized and left the apartment once Reimo Smits showed his diplomatic ID, but he did in only in an hour after the search began.

The laws of Belarus ban homosexuality and this prohibition is particularly favored by enforcement bodies when it comes to the opposition or the foreign countries rendering support to it. Of all E.U. states, Latvia has been most active in issues related to Belarus. Up to July 1, its embassy in Minsk represented Austria, which chaired the E.U. at that time. It is interesting that Reimo Smits has supervised contacts with the opposition and made out lists of persons invited to Riga to attend international conferences.

Source:

http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=695090