BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

22/10/2008

U.S. wants more reform before lifiting Belarus sanctions

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States wants Belarus to do more to advance human rights and to promote civil society before further easing sanctions against the former Soviet republic, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.

Washington sees no immediate need to match recent European overtures to Belarus because it already eased some sanctions this year, David Merkel, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said in an interview.

"We are looking for them to take some other significant steps that would allow us to move on the sanctions," Merkel told Reuters.

The European Union this month suspended a travel ban on Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko and dozens of other officials as a reward for freeing political prisoners in August.

In power for 14 years, Lukashenko has recently begun seeking closer ties with the West after disputes over gas prices with key ally Russia.

Washington has given no sign it would lift similar bans on Belarussian leaders' travel to the United States.

But when asked whether the Bush administration would do so, Merkel said Washington had already responded to Belarus' freeing of the political prisoners by waiving sanctions for six months against two companies that are subsidiaries of Belarus' oil products giant Belneftekhim.

Washington did not, however, lift a ban it imposed last year on dealings with Belneftekhim itself, which brings in up to a third of the country's foreign currency earnings.

The Bush administration would now like to see a more permissive environment for independent media and independent organizations such as youth groups in Belarus, Merkel said.

Washington also wants to see the removal of an "additional barrier" to better ties -- the forced April reduction of the size of the U.S. Embassy staff in Belarus, Merkel said. But he denied this was a precondition for U.S. sanctions being lifted.

BALANCING ACT

U.S. ties with Belarus almost completely collapsed earlier this year in the dispute over human rights and sanctions. In April, Belarus announced it was expelling 10 U.S. diplomats, and Merkel said the embassy in Minsk, which once had a staff of 34, now operated with five Americans.

He said the United States recognized Belarus had a difficult balancing act vis-a-vis the Kremlin and the West, and was reliant on Russian gas.

"They have a large, difficult neighbor that they want to have a good relationship with, but they recognize the need for having tentacles out to Europe and the United States," he said.

Merkel said former Soviet republics like Belarus may also be looking at Moscow's recent intervention in Georgia and wonder, "what do they (the Russians) have in store for us?"

The 27-member European Union left some sanctions in place to manifest its displeasure at the conduct of last month's parliamentary election in Belarus, which was deemed by Western observers to have fallen short of international standards.

Washington also said it was disappointed in the conduct of those elections, in which opposition candidates failed to win a single seat.

Source:

http://www.kyivpost.com/world/30492

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