BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

31/01/2007

Belarus rights group gets reprieve

Regime backs off eviction of rights agency

Reuters, The Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus: Belarus's regime has pulled back from closing down a leading human rights group after strong U.S. and EU pressure, the group said Wednesday.

Last week, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee had to vacate its offices and said that it was facing closure because it had lost its legal address. But the presidential property agency, which owns the building where the group rents space, has extended the lease for another year, the group's head, Tatyana Protko, said Wednesday.

She suggested the about-face was part of an effort by President Aleksandr Lukashenko to improve relations with the West amid disputes with neighboring Russia.

"Lukashenko was frightened by the response of the EU and U.S., with whom he's trying to unfreeze ties," Protko said. She said the extension of the lease "is a first step of the Belarusian leadership toward understanding the European value system."

On Monday, the U.S. State Department said the decision to evict the Belarusian Helsinki Committee "underscores the steady deterioration of the human rights situation in the country."

Last year, the Justice Ministry sought to close down the committee, accusing it of posting unauthorized observers during 2004 parliamentary elections, occupying office premises reserved for residential housing and committing major tax violations.

The move against a persistent critic of Lukashenko followed protests against his disputed re-election in March. In December, the authorities confiscated the group's computer equipment and furniture, but the courts stopped short of closing it.

Lukashenko has based his 12 years in power on close links with Moscow, but since a dispute this month with the country's former Soviet masters in Moscow, he has looked to better ties with European nations he has long portrayed as interfering and arrogant.

"We recognize that our policy of developing in multiple directions has been turned into a single direction," he said after meeting the Communist opposition leader in Russia, Gennady Zyuganov.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/31/news/minsk.php

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