BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

13/10/2008

EU suspends visa ban on Belarussian leader

By Stephen Castle and Michael Schwirtz

BRUSSELS: Belarus, often described as the last dictatorship in Europe, emerged from the diplomatic deep freeze Monday when the European Union temporarily lifted a travel ban on the country's president, Aleksandr Lukashenko.

With ties between the EU and Russia severely strained over the recent conflict in Georgia, European foreign ministers decided to relax restrictions on the Belarussian government in the hope of luring the country away from Moscow's sphere of influence.

Officially, the move Monday was in response to the recent release of political prisoners by the Belarussian government.

But diplomats in Brussels say they believe that the August military conflict between Georgia and Russia over the breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia may have prompted alarm among Russia's neighbors, including Belarus, that their independence is also at risk. Nevertheless, some nations remain skeptical that such fears can be exploited, and doubt that overtures will have any significant impact on the Belarussian government.

That caution was reflected in the temporary nature of the travel ban concession, which lapses automatically in six months unless there is unanimous support from EU governments to continue it.

The announcement was made before a meeting between foreign ministers from the European Union and Belarus's foreign minister, Sergei Martynov, in Luxembourg on Monday evening, the highest-level contact between the parties in four years.

Washington has made no indication that it plans to match European overtures and lift a similar ban on Belarussian leaders' travel to the United States.

However, earlier this year, it welcomed the release of prisoners and sent the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, David Merkel, to the Belarussian capital, Minsk.

Belarus, a former Soviet republic of 10 million people, has had a prickly relationship with Europe since Lukashenko came to power in 1994, imposing a Soviet-style dictatorship that has tended to gravitate toward Russia, with which Belarus shares cultural and linguistic ties.

Still, friction has occasionally erupted between Russia and Belarus, and as animosity between the West and Russia has intensified in recent months, the EU has sought to strengthen relations with Belarus.

During the brief war in August between Russia and Georgia, Lukashenko refrained from expressing overt support of his longtime allies in the Kremlin, even as Moscow weathered intense condemnation from the West for its role in the conflict.

Nor has Belarus followed Moscow in recognizing declarations of independence by South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The official reason for lifting the travel ban was the release, on Aug. 20, of two Belarussian political prisoners, Syarhey Parsyukevich and Andrey Kim.

That followed the decision four days earlier to free another critic of the regime, Aleksandr Kazulin.

But the conduct of the parliamentary elections in Belarus last month failed to meet international standards, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

To reflect that verdict, the name of the Belarussian election commission head, Lidia Yermoshina, was added to the list of four people who remain banned from traveling to Europe.

The European commissioner of external relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said the EU's goal was to press for an improvement in human rights.

"We have to show that progress is being rewarded," she said.

The EU imposed sanctions on Lukashenko and about 40 other Belarussian officials in 1999 after crackdowns on the political opposition. In 2002 he was refused a visa by the Czech government when he threatened to attend a NATO summit meeting.

At the time, Lukashenko was reported to have threatened retaliation for the snub, saying he would flood Western Europe with illegal immigrants and drugs. Belarus is not a NATO member, though it cooperates with the alliance through its Partnership for Peace program.

Anatoly Lebedko, leader of the opposition United Civil Party, opposed lifting the sanctions.

"Europe has started playing with Lukashenko in trying to drag Belarus away from Russia, but I don't think that it will lead to any improvements of the situation with democracy in Belarus," Lebedko said, according to The Associated Press.

Critics of the move argue that Lukashenko has relaxed his grip by releasing political prisoners only because he knows that the internal opposition is so divided that it poses little threat to him. They worry that the EU is being manipulated by Lukashenko, who has proved adept at playing Europeans against Moscow.

Michael Schwirtz reported from Moscow.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/13/europe/belarus.php

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