BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

28/07/2006

Roundup: Belarus Investigates Latvian Diplomat On Porn Charge

A Latvian diplomat whose home was raided by Belarusian security police has been charged with distributing pornography, the Baltic News Service BNS and Interfax news agency reported Friday.

"Pornographic materials have been seized from him. A criminal probe has been opened against the employee of the Latvian embassy for distribution of pornographic materials," Belarus Interior Minister Vladimir Naumov said.

When asked by Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, sources at the Latvian Foreign Ministry were unwilling to confirm or comment directly on the report, saying they had received no official confirmation of the claim.

However, on Thursday the Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks claimed that the Belarusian security services' raid on the diplomat's residence earlier in the week was a deliberate "provocation."

Riga accuses Minsk of breaching the 1961 Vienna Convention on the treatment of diplomatic staff and sent a protest note to Minsk demanding an explanation.

"We sent an inspector to Minsk as soon as the news of the raid reached us. He found no evidence whatsoever of any questionable activity carried out by our diplomat," a ministry spokeswoman told dpa.

"We are still waiting for a response to the note of protest we issued following the raid on the diplomat's residence," she added.

But Minsk appeared unlikely to back down in the dispute, with Naumov saying "our law enforcement system will prosecute the crime of pornography if proof is found."

The row began early Tuesday morning when Belarusian security services raided the residence of the second secretary of the Latvian embassy in Minsk, removing his personal belongings.

Pornography is banned in Belarus. If a Belarusian court determines the materials found in the raid were pornographic and brought into the country by the diplomat, he would almost certainly be expelled from the authoritarian state as a persona non grata.

It comes at a time when the Belarusian regime is increasingly being shunned by Western democracies. Latvia and Belarus have some economic ties, but Latvia is known to support Belarusian dissidents and has criticized the country's human-rights record.

Latvia is one of a group of 10 mainly Central and Eastern European countries which joined the EU in 2004.

Its neighbour, Belarus, is run along authoritarian lines by President Alexander Lukashenko, who is often referred to as "Europe's last dictator."

Lukashenko has a long history of picking fights with Western diplomats, during the late 1990s threating to evict dozens of NATO ambassadors from their Minsk residences by claiming the city sewage system needed maintenance.

Lukashenko effectively severed relations with the United States by ordering workmen to weld shut the gate residence of the US ambassador to Minsk, leaving Ambassador Daniel Speckhard to accuse Lukashenko of violating international treaties on the treatment of diplomatic staff.

More recently his pro-Moscow government has ejected Polish diplomats from the country, claiming they were spies.

Lukashenko in March used Soviet-style election tactics and a powerful KGB to win re-election as the country's undisputed leader. Democratic nations in retaliation banned the travel of Lukashenko and other senior Belarusian officials to their countries - a measure Lukashenko has laughed off as ineffectual and "silly."

Source:

http://www.playfuls.com/news_00000001823_ROUNDUP_Belarus_Investigates_Latvian_Diplomat_On_Porn_Charge_.html

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