BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20/04/2009

LN: Klaus talks to Chinese, not to Lukashenko

Prague, April 18 (CTK) - Czech President Vaclav Klaus is a man of principles and therefore he will not hold out his hand to Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, but he did not have problems with the Chinese, Lubos Palata wrote in daily Lidove noviny Saturday.

He is reacting to Klaus's statement on Friday that he will not shake hands with Lukashenko and will not receive him at Prague Castle if he arrives to attend an EU-Eastern Partnership summit in May.

Palata writes "it would be nice if this gesture were a result of Mr Klaus's principled stands on the non-observance of democracy and human rights."

Klaus, however, contemptuously calls people striving for pushing through these values "humanrightists," meaning people who defend human rights, and he does not criticise the practices of Chinese Communists and of the former Russian president, now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Palata writes.

Therefore, Klaus's gesture rather squares with his disdainful position on the summit of Eastern Partnership and the whole project, Palata writes.

He writes that Klaus, after all, warned against it Ukraianin President Viktor Yushchenko some time ago.

"It is known that it is Russia which Mr President likes so much that is the most bothered about Eastern Partnership," Palata writes.

Another possibility is that Klaus is developing into a "humarightist" or that he is simply anger at Lukashenko because he did not reply his letter a few years ago, Palata writes.

He reminds that Klaus decided already in March 2006 not to congratulate Lukashenko on his re-election and, on the contrary, he confirmed his fears for the state of democracy in Belarus.

"President Klaus already expressed these fears in October 2004 in his letter to President Lukashenko to which he has not received a reply to date," Palata quotes Klaus's spokesman as saying in 2006.

Apart from Belarus, the project also embraces another five former Soviet republics, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Source:

http://praguemonitor.com/2009/04/20/ln-klaus-talks-chinese-not-lukashenko

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