BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/08/2007

Belarus needs no unwanted foreign visitors - Lukashenko

MINSK, August 18 (Itar-Tass) -- Belarus needs no unwanted foreign voyagers, its President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday in the wake of the recent border incident, when the authorities denied entry visas to some Polish politicians.

"We are a sovereign and independent country, and we had expected no visitors of this sort," Lukashenko said during a working visit to the Vitebsk and Mogilev regions. "They will be here only if we invite them. If not, there is nothing for them to do here. The entrance is closed."

"Here, in the countryside, I can put it in plain, simple village-type words. We gave them a good punch, and it served them right," emotional Lukashenko said.

Belarus on August 15 denied entry visas to the deputy speaker of the Polish parliament, Krzsyzstof Putra, leader of the Civil Platform party Donald Tusk, and leader of the parliamentary group Robert Tyszkiewicz.

The Belarussian Foreign Ministry then said that "each country has a list of persons, whose presence in the territory of the given state is undesirable."

"There is such a list in Belarus, too," the Foreign Ministry said. "Besides, the Polish side had been warned in advance that some of its representatives planning a trip to the town of Grodno would be denied entry visas."

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11800497&PageNum=0