BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

June 03, 2005 06:13 PM ET

US aids 'blue' Belarus opposition

Financial Times All Financial Times News

The Bush administration is turning the US media spotlight towards Belarus--recently described by Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, as the "last true dictatorship in the centre of Europe"--as the next domino ready to fall before the advance of democracy.

A senior State Department official on Friday told reporters the US was stepping up assistance to political parties, independent media and civic groups in Belarus opposed to President Alexander Lukashenko. He said the US and its allies were also considering excluding certain Belarusan officials from international cultural, sporting and political events.

The official, who requested anonymity, described his extensive travels through Belarus and how he had encountered "Lukashenko fatigue", even among local officials. But, drawing comparisons with events in Ukraine, he said it was not clear how the population would respond to domestic efforts to replace "a very strong dictatorial regime".

The US administration condemned the sentencing in Minsk this week of two prominent opposition leaders, Nikolai Statkevich and Pavel Severinets, to three years' labour for organising an anti-Lukashenko rally.

By seeking to shift the focus towards Belarus, a diplomat noted that the US was also diverting attention away from Uzbekistan following the crackdown on anti-government protesters last month in which hundreds of civilians were reported to have been killed.

In April, Ms Rice met Belarusan opposition figures in Lithuania. She included Belarus in a list of six "outposts of tyranny" at her Senate confirmation hearing. After the "orange" revolution in Ukraine, "rose" in Georgia and "cedar" in Lebanon, the senior official noted that an opposition youth front in Belarus was promoting "cornflower blue".

Western governments have refused to recognise the legitimacy of a referendum last October that allowed Mr Lukashenko to run for a third term in elections next year.

Source:

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?feed=FT&Date=20050603&ID=4866472

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/3d72b4ca-d467-11d9-9db0-00000e2511c8,dwp_uuid=d4f2ab60-c98e-11d7-81c6-0820abe49a01.html