BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
07/03/2008
US sits tight despite Belarus bid to banish ambassador
(AFP)
The US ambassador to Belarus will remain in Minsk despite the government's attempt to force her out, the State Department said Friday, amid mounting diplomatic tension.
"The press reports that we got this morning had indicated she had been expelled from the country, formally told that she must leave. That is not true," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.
"Ambassador (Karen) Stewart has not been expelled. The Belarussian government has suggested -- I think that is the polite phrase -- that she return to the United States for consultations," Casey said.
"She is in Minsk, and she will remain in Minsk while we continue to review the situation," Casey said.
The Belarus foreign ministry said it had ordered its own ambassador to Washington, Mikhail Khvostov, to return home to Minsk in protest for US sanctions on Belarus' oil monopoly Belneftekhim.
The ministry added that Belarus "strongly recommends that the US ambassador in Minsk, Karen Stewart, leave our country."
The decision was one of a number of tough measures that will be taken in response to the United States, which has "violated the agreed algorithm on normalising relations," the statement said.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: "We strongly regret this unjustified action by the Belarussian government. This is deeply disappointing and only takes them further away from Europe and the rest of the world."
The United States, which has described the regime of Belarussian President Vladimir Lukashenko as "Europe's last dictatorship," last year blacklisted Belneftekhim, freezing the accounts of its US representative office.
On Thursday, the Belarussian state news agency Belta reported that the US Treasury Department had introduced "limitations on the access of the company's subsidiaries to the US market".
Belarus had in December warned of a retaliation if the United States increased the sanctions. The United States and the European Union both have visa bans in place against Belarussian leaders.
In Friday's statement the Belarussian foreign ministry called on the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to intervene against what it called a "crude violation" by the US of the organisation's principles.
If this does not happen, Belarus will reconsider its relations with the OSCE, an international body promoting principles of democracy and good governance, the statement said.
Washington has been a fierce critic of Lukashenko for rolling back democratic freedoms since his election in 1994 and cracking down on dissent.
Friday's statement followed sharp criticism by the United States of Belarus's treatment of imprisoned opposition leader Alexander Kozulin.
After international condemnation, Belarus agreed to briefly free Kozulin from jail for his wife's funeral. Kozulin was jailed in 2006 for leading a large street protest against an election denounced by the West as rigged.
Casey said this pressure would continue.
"It's important, we think, to have our embassy there in Minsk and to have high-level diplomatic representation there to engage with the Belarusian government on a number of concerns, including some of the ones you've heard us speak about, which is the need to release all political prisoners," he said.
Russia is one of the few supporters of the Lukashenko regime, which has also sought to forge ties with anti-US leaderships in Iran and Venezuela.
After a meeting between Lukashenko and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last summer Belneftekhim formed a joint venture with a Venezuelan company to extract oil in the South American country.
Source:
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=218869
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