BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

24/05/2006

Lukashenko defiant, may ban flights

Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko served notice on Tuesday that he had no intention of altering policies denounced in the West and suggested he might counter sanctions against Belarus by banning flights over his country.

Lukashenko, in his annual state of the nation address, refused to consider any dialogue with opposition parties after his re-election in March was dismissed as rigged in Western capitals.

The president expressed surprise his ministers had taken no retaliatory action against an entry ban by the United States and European on him and other officials following the election.

And he denounced a refusal by Canada and the United States to refuel a plane carrying Belarussian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky to and from Cuba.

"Let them fly over the Baltic states or Ukraine. We ought to close the main route through," Lukashenko told parliament. "Perhaps we will lose something here. But we must show them that we are proud people."

Lukashenko said Belarus would make a legal challenge to the sanctions. The EU adopted the measures in response to the election in which he was credited with 83% of the vote to 6% for his nearest rival.

"Who under international conventions is empowered to limit freedom of movement?" he said. "Did a court rule that Lukashenko or Sidorsky were criminals? There is no such ruling."

The president, in power since 1994, said he had no intention of speaking to the opposition which staged unprecedented rallies for four days after the election before they were dispersed.

More than 600 protesters were jailed for up to 15 days. Opposition leaders, including his main poll rival, Alexander Milinkevich, were jailed briefly after subsequent protests.

"I am prepared for dialogue with an opposition which has proper aims of protecting the state and its people. This is no opposition, they are morons," he told parliament, where the opposition holds no seats.

"What sort of dialogue can there be when they call for economic sanctions against the Belarussian people?"

Western accusations

Western countries accuse Lukashenko of crushing opponents and closing down media and demand explanations for the disappearance of several public figures.

US Vice President Dick Cheney last month restated Washington's view that Belarus is "Europe's last dictatorship".

Among Lukashenko's few allies is Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of a handful of leaders to congratulate him on his victory.

The Belarussian president, his address uncharacteristically short at half an hour, remains genuinely popular among voters fearful of perceived instability in other ex-Soviet states.

"The (2004) parliamentary and the presidential election proved beyond doubt for what and for whom the vast majority of people voted," he told the chamber. "This was not only trust in the president but in the entire system of authority."

He also said he favoured creation of a political party backing his administration, but would not initiate such a move.

"This does not mean Lukashenko is making a concession to so-called Western-style democratisation," he said. "I need no political or other power base. I rely strictly on the people."

Source:

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411749/722050