BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
18/03/2008
US ambassador to Belarus not expecting quick return to Minsk
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON: The U.S. ambassador to Belarus, who left the country under pressure from the Belarusian government, said Tuesday she has no immediate plans to return and is not sure whether she would be allowed to.
Karen Stewart told The Associated Press Tuesday that she returned to Washington after the government threatened to expel her in retaliation to U.S. sanctions.
"I was not expelled, but they made it clear that that would be the next step if I did not leave," she said.
The Belarusian Embassy in Washington had no immediate comment Tuesday.
Ties between the U.S. and Belarus have been badly strained for years. U.S. officials have called President Alexander Lukashenko "Europe's last dictator" for his authoritarian rule and intolerance of dissent in the ex-Soviet republic of 10 million.
The State Department says that Belarus has also asked the United States to reduce its embassy staff and threatened to expel some of the 35 U.S. diplomats if it does not.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday that it had summoned the senior remaining U.S. diplomat to convey the "strong advice of the Belarusian side to cut the number of the U.S. Embassy personnel."
The ministry statement did not specify what reductions it demanded.
Stewart says the United States is considering the demand. But she added: "We don't think it is a warranted request."
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said that its call for Stewart's departure had been prompted by the U.S. sanctions against Belarus' state-controlled oil-processing and chemicals company, Belneftekhim. The U.S. last year froze the company's assets and barred American companies from doing business with it.
The U.S. said the Belarusian government must release all inmates the United States considers political prisoners if it wants to improve ties. Several opposition figures have been released since the start of the year in what Lukashenko called "an unprecedented step of good will toward the West."
Stewart says that the United States would still consider loosening sanction if Belarus releases the remaining political prisoners.
"Releasing the political prisoners is the step that opens the door to all sorts of better relations," she said.
The United States would like her to return soon, but Belarus has indicated that should not happen before it sends its own ambassador back to Washington, Stewart said.
"They have not signaled when he would come back," she added.
Stewart says the tension has been difficult and she was disappointed to leave Minsk.
"If I am smiling now, it means that I have pulled myself a bit out of the dumps," she said. "I love my job, but the last couple of weeks have not been all that pleasant."
Source:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/18/america/NA-GEN-US-Belarus.php
Archive
