BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

26/02/2006

U.S. Warns Belarus Over Vote

Combined Reports

MINSK -- A senior U.S. diplomat warned Belarus not to manipulate results in next month's tense presidential election, in which Alexander Lukashenko is seeking a third term.

Lukashenko's main challenger, Alexander Milinkevich, has said opposition backers will hold demonstrations if the March 19 election is tallied fraudulently -- and concerns are high that any such large gathering would be swiftly and harshly put down by police and troops.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer called on all sides to avoid violence, but "there is a bigger responsibility on the part of the government -- since they are the ones with security forces, they are the ones with guns, batons and other means, tear gas -- to avoid use of force and to make sure that the election is free and fair."

"A fraudulent election will obviously not help relations, and those who would engage in that kind of activity I hope will not underestimate the resolve of the European and U.S. communities," Kramer said at a news conference at the end of a two-day visit.

The Belarussian Foreign Ministry responded Saturday by urging Washington to help keep the election free of violence.

"One can only express surprise at the State Department representative's insistence on possible 'violent protest actions in Belarus during the election campaign,'" Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Popov said in a statement. "Just what is meant here is totally incomprehensible."

Popov said the United States should share any information it might have on possible violence.

Kramer said Friday: "I'm not here pushing people to go into the streets. But if it's what people choose to do, they have a right to do it in a peaceful way."

In a speech to students at a military institute on Friday, Lukashenko portrayed himself as defending the nation's youth against foreign influences.

"Our Western opponents very well understand that the most important thing is to take ownership of the minds of the young people in order to then manipulate them and lure them into illegal activities," he said.

"They are trying to inspire them with the idea that the most important thing in life is their own advantage and pleasure."

Lukashenko has accused the United States and other Western countries of backing the mass demonstrations in the former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan over the past two years. Those demonstrations, which all broke out after disputed elections, drove longtime leaders from power in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan and forced an election rerun in Ukraine that was won by pro-West reformer Viktor Yushchenko.

European Union-funded independent television and radio broadcast programs for Belarus will begin on Sunday, the EU executive said, as the continent's leading human rights watchdog said what it called "isolation" of the Belarussian people must end.

The news and current affairs broadcasts in Russian and Belarussian are designed to provide independent news to Belarussians ahead of the election.

The Czech Republic's foreign minister and a senior official of the Council of Europe on Thursday called on all member states of the council to support democratic forces and civil society in Belarus.

"We encourage the member states of the Council of Europe to strengthen their support for the further development of democratic forces and civil society in Belarus and to break the isolation of the Belarussian people," said a joint statement by Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda and president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Rene Van der Linden, adopted at the end of a conference in Prague.

(AP, Reuters)

Source:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/02/26/015.html