BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/01/2007

Council of Europe member hopes for Belarus cooperation; opposition worries about visit

The Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus: A senior member of Europe's leading human rights watchdog will press Belarus to move toward "European values," he said Thursday, while opponents of the ex-Soviet nation's authoritarian government expressed concern that the visit was too friendly a gesture.

There have been persistently cold relations between the EU and Belarus, a nation near the continent's geographical center but isolated from the West by President Alexander Lukashenko's oppressive policies.

"I hope my visit will foster movement by Belarus toward cooperation with the Council of Europe and European values," Dutch senator Rene van der Linden, who chairs the council's Parliamentary Assembly, said on arrival at the airport in the capital, Minsk.

The European Union slapped a visa ban on Lukashenko and other senior Belarusian officials after he won a third term in office last March in elections that were tarnished by arrests and persecution of opponents and protesters and widely rejected in the West as illegitimate.

The Council of Europe, however, is trying to engage Belarusian leaders in a debate about democracy, arguing that isolating the country would lead to a further strengthening of the rule of Lukashenko, dubbed "Europe's last dictator" in the West.

"The Council of Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly are able to build bridges, even if the bridges are quite small in the beginning," van der Linden said after meeting with Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov.

"Dialogue is better than isolation," he said.

Belarus - the only European country that is not a member of the 46-nation body - does not readily grant visas to Western politicians. Van der Linden's three-day trip took a year to organize and he said earlier that Russia, which has more influence over Lukashenko, was instrumental in helping him secure an invitation.

The main opposition leader, Alexander Milinkevich, suggested van der Linden should have set conditions for his visit, such as the release of jailed opposition figures. "I have certain concerns because this visit is taking place without advance conditions for the Belarusian regime, which I consider extremely important," he said.

Before the trip, van der Linden said that his conditions were to meet with Martynov and the speakers of the two loyal parliament houses, and stressed that he would not soften his criticism when he was face-to-face with officials and lawmakers.

"During the visit I will further the spread of the values and principles that the Council of Europe shares," he said upon arrival.

He also plans to meet with opponents of the government, and non-governmental organizations.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/18/europe/EU-GEN-Belarus-Europe.php