BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

28/06/2007

Belarusian President's Website Launches Belarusian-Language Version

The official website of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka (http://www.president.gov.by) on June 27 inaugurated a Belarusian-language version, in addition to its Russian- and English-language ones. Since the start of his presidential career, Lukashenka has been known for his overt disdain for the native tongue of the Belarusians. In a notoriously derisive comment in 1994, he declared that there are only two great languages in the world -- Russian and English. "The people who speak the Belarusian language cannot do anything else apart from speaking the Belarusian language, because it's impossible to express anything great in Belarusian," he asserted. In May 1995, Lukashenka called a referendum that made Russian the second official language in the country. In practical terms, the 1995 referendum has eliminated the Belarusian language, which enjoyed a measure of state-sponsored revival in 1991-93, almost completely from public life and state-controlled media in Belarus. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/06/3-cee/cee-280607.asp