BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

01/11/2007

Belarusian Envoy Tries For Damage Control After President's Anti-Semitic Remarks

Pavel Yakubovich, the editor in chief of "Sovetskaya Belorussiya," the largest state-run newspaper, said on October 31 at the Israeli Foreign Ministry that President Lukashenka's recent comments about Jews should be regarded as "a joke" and "not serious," Belapan and RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported. An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said the matter has been resolved. Addressing a group of Russian journalists on October 12, Lukashenka said Jewish residents had turned the city of Babruysk in Mahilyou Oblast into a "pigsty" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," October 18, 2007). Yakubovich said that Lukashenka's remarks should be assessed as "anything but anti-Semitic," adding that accusations of anti-Semitism insulted the president. AM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/11/3-cee/cee-011107.asp