BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/12/2007

Even as US considers more sanctions, Belarus says existing sanctions violate international law

WASHINGTON (AP) - Belarus' ambassador to Washington said Monday the United States was violating an agreement it signed in 1994 by maintaining sanctions against his country.

Mikhail Khvostov said the United States agreed not to take economic action against the country under a "memorandum of security assurances" signed by the two countries after Belarus agreed to be a non-nuclear state under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The United States denied that the document had ruled out sanctions.

"We consider our actions to be wholly consistent with our political commitments and our obligations," said David Kramer, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.

He said Khvostov's allegation was a diversion from criticism of recent violent attacks by the government in Belarus against political opponents.

US authorities leveled sanctions this year against Belarus's state-controlled oil-processing and chemicals company, Belneftekhim, freezing its assets and barring American companies from doing business with it. In concert with the European Union, the United States already had sanctioned Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and other senior officials last year.

The United States is considering new sanctions against Belarus because of its refusal to free political prisoners and allow democratic freedoms. The Bush administration has listed the former Soviet republic as an "outpost of tyranny" along with other US adversaries such as Cuba and Myanmar.

Khvostov said in a news conference that the United States has violated international law by ignoring its promises in the 1994 memorandum.

"It shows that at any time the Bush administration can roll back the US security assurances given to a legally binding instrument," the ambassador said.

The US ambassador to Belarus, Karen Stewart, said last week that new economic measures, which would be on top of the travel restrictions and other sanctions already in place, could target other state-owned Belarusian companies.

Lukashenko has been Belarus' authoritarian ruler for more than a decade.

The Belarusian leader has quashed dissent and opposition groups and built a Soviet-style, centrally controlled economy that has been heavily reliant on cheap Russian energy for its survival. Belarus has been called Europe's last dictatorship.

The travel sanctions followed the arrests and harassment of political opponents and others during the 2006 election, which gave Lukashenko a third term but was sharply criticized as a sham by Belarusian opposition groups and many Western governments.

Source:

http://www.kyivpost.com/bn/28018/