BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

16/06/2009

EU sets June 22 for postponed Belarus mission

LUXEMBOURG, Jun 15 (Reuters) EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner will travel to Belarus next Monday in a new bid to encourage the former Soviet state to make political reforms needed to end its international isolation. Ferrero-Waldner said the June 22 trip followed an invitation by President Alexander Lukashenko. An earlier planned trip in March was postponed after Lukashenko visited Armenia at the last moment, a move that baffled EU officials. ''They have to do a lot of things, that is what I will tell them,'' Ferrero-Waldner told reporters in Luxembourg. ''But at the same time there is a chance for them to engage with us if they do what they should do.'' Belarus is trying to end its international isolation over accusations of human rights violations and electoral abuses. The EU in March prolonged for nine months a suspension of a visa ban imposed on Lukashenko and about 40 officials after a 2006 re-election deemed fraudulent by some observers. In what was seen as a deal designed to avoid irritating EU states still unhappy with his rights record, Lukashenko stayed away from a Prague summit last month at which the EU announced plans for closer ties with Belarus and five other former Soviet states.

Source:

http://www.deepikaglobal.com/ENG4_sub.asp?ccode=ENG4&newscode=37271

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