BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/08/2009

Senior U.S. official to visit Belarus this week

MINSK, Aug 10 (Reuters) - A senior U.S. government official will visit ex-Soviet Belarus on Friday, weeks after President Alexander Lukashenko pardoned a jailed U.S. lawyer in a gesture aimed at improving ties with Washington.

Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Phillip Gordon will meet top government officials and opposition leaders during his one-day trip to Minsk, the U.S. embassy said on Monday, giving no further details.

Gordon would be the highest level U.S. official to visit since Minsk demanded the departure of the U.S. ambassador in March last year at the climax of a diplomatic spat over sanctions imposed by Washington on Belarus.

The United States and the European Union have for years accused Lukashenko of jailing his opponents, muzzling free media and rigging his re-election to a third term.

But the European Union lifted a travel ban imposed on him after the veteran president released the last of what the West called political prisoners and allowed opposition newspapers to be published and sold in Belarus.

EU Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana made his first trip to Minsk in February and Lukashenko visited Italy in April.

Washington made no similar gestures and had instead wanted authorities to release on health grounds Emmanuel Zeltser, a lawyer serving a three-year term for industrial espionage. Lukashenko pardoned him at the end of June.

The United States has yet to appoint a new ambassador and sanctions remain on some Belarussian companies, including oil products firm Belneftekhim. (Writing by Sabina Zawadzki; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Source:

http://www.kyivpost.com/world/46769

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