BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

03/08/2006

Latvia expels Belarus diplomat

From correspondents in Riga

LATVIA today gave a Belarus diplomat 24 hours to leave the Baltic state, a week after the authorities in Minsk searched the home of a Latvian embassy official they accused of distributing pornography.

The Latvian foreign ministry said in a statement that the first secretary of the Belarus embassy in Riga "has been declared persona non grata for actions not in accordance with his status as a diplomat", and was being expelled.

The decision to expel the Belarussian diplomat, identified by the Baltic News Service (BNS) agency as first secretary and embassy spokesman Dmitry Krayushkin, comes a week after the authorities in Minsk raided the apartment of Latvian diplomat Reino Smits and seized some of his belongings.

Latvia immediately filed a complaint with Minsk, saying the raid violated the terms of the 1961 Vienna Convention, which covers diplomatic relations.

On Monday, the diplomatic row became more heated when Belarus state television aired video footage featuring a sexual act between two men, claiming it had been shot with a hidden camera at the apartment of the Latvian diplomat.

The Latvian foreign ministry denounced the accusations levelled at Mr Smits as "a provocation against the Latvian state and its diplomat, and a serious violation of the norms and traditions of diplomatic law".

Overnight, Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks refused to meet the recently accredited Belarussian ambassador to Riga, demanding that Minsk provide an explanation by next week for the incidents involving Mr Smits.

To date, Riga has received no official explanation as to why Mr Smits' apartment was raided, the foreign ministry said.

Source:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20003084-1702,00.html

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