BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/01/2008

Belarus turns the screw on opposition, U.S. objects

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarus slapped a travel ban on a veteran opposition party leader and moved closer towards closing down another party opposed to President Alexander Lukashenko, activists told Reuters on Friday.

The U.S. embassy in Minsk immediately condemned the actions of the former Soviet state ruled with an iron grip by Lukashenko, saying they could threaten trade relations, already hit by U.S. sanctions imposed last year on a state company.

Anatoly Lebedko, leader of the liberal United Civil Party, said he had received papers from the Interior Ministry banning him from travel and called it a political move after he had met President George Bush in December.

"The travel ban is a political decision," he told Reuters by phone. "The problems began after I visited the United States, where I and my colleagues had a conversation with President George Bush."

He said the Interior Ministry had linked the ban to a libel case against him which began in 2004 when he criticized the Belarusian government on Russian television. The case is yet to reach court.

The Justice Ministry said on Friday it had applied to the Supreme Court to close down the Communist Party, already suspended since August, because "the party violated the decision (to suspend it) and continued its political activities".

"The government wants to close our party because our ideas of social fairness are very popular. We are dangerous for the authorities," Communist party leader Sergei Kalyakin told Reuters. Kalyakin met Bush together with Lebedko.

The United States and the European Union accuse Lukashenko, in power for 13 years, of strangling democracy by jailing his opponents, shutting down independent media and rigging polls, including his own re-election to a third term in 2006.

Both barred Lukashenko and dozens of officials from entry after that landslide victory, which was followed by unprecedented protest rallies. He later jailed opposition candidate Alexander Kozulin for his role in the protests.

U.S. HITS BACK

Lukashenko says his rule has protected ordinary people from the political and economic turmoil of other ex-Soviet states since the fall of communism -- he maintains high social spending and is generally liked by the population.

In November, Washington forbade Americans from doing business with the state oil firm and threatened more action, prompting Lukashenko to say on Sunday he would expel the U.S. ambassador. In a tit-for-tat verbal exchange, the United States hit back.

"Moves by the Belarusian regime to block persons from this right (to leave a country) for political reasons could threaten the status of normal trade relations between Belarus and the United States," the embassy said in a statement on Friday in reaction to Lebedko's travel ban.

Belarus, squashed between its former giant overlord Russia and three EU member states, has tried to move away from dependence on Moscow especially after last year's dispute over gas import prices leading to supply cuts.

But in December, Belarus signed a fresh gas price deal and an agreement for a loan of $1.5 billion from Moscow, with another potential $2 billion loan to come.

"Minsk is not afraid to worsen relations with West because it had got Russian support again," Jaroslav Romanchuk, head of the Belarusian Mises think tank, said.

(Editing by Richard Williams)

Source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSL0426795020080104