BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

11/12/2006

Belarusian opposition leader asks Slovakia for support within the EU

The Associated Press

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia: The top opposition leader in Belarus urged Slovakia to increase support for pro-democratic forces in his country and to speak for them within the European Union.

President Alexander Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, quashing dissent and maintaining power through elections dismissed by critics abroad and at home as illegitimate.

Belarus opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich met with high-ranking Slovak officials in Bratislava on Sunday, and later said he had "urged Slovakia to represent Belarus opposition in the European Union" as it "has experience in fighting totalitarian regimes."

In the 1990s, the Slovak opposition struggled for years to end the autocratic rule of former Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar whose policies pushed Slovakia into international isolation.

Meciar and his People's Party-Movement for a Democratic Slovakia are now part of Slovakia's ruling coalition led by social-democrat Robert Fico. Slovakia joined the EU in 2004.

Milinkevich briefly visited Slovakia en route to Strasbourg where he will receive the European Parliament's Andrei Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought on Tuesday.

After meeting Milinkievich, Slovak Foreign Minister Jan Kubis pledged his country would aid the Belarusian opposition.

Milinkevich also met Slovak opposition leaders including former Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda - but not his successor Fico. Dzurinda later criticized Fico's failure to meet Milinkievich as "unimaginable."

In 2003, Fico, then an opposition politician visited Belarus and met Lukashenko. He later said the visit was aimed at improving trade.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/11/europe/EU_GEN_Slovakia_Belarus_Opposition.php