Belarus expels U.S. ambassador

The Associated Press
Friday, March 7, 2008

MINSK, Belarus: The Belarusian Foreign Ministry on Friday demanded the U.S. ambassador leave the country and recalled its own ambassador to the U.S over economic sanctions Washington imposed on Belarus last year.

The action reflects rising tensions between the government of Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko and the United States. Washington has slapped travel restrictions on Lukashenko and members of his inner circle as well as financial sanctions against Belarusian authorities over their crackdown on opposition and free media.

It was not immediately clear whether U.S. Ambassador Karen Stewart had left the country. The U.S. Embassy refused to comment.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said its demand that Stewart leave had been prompted by U.S. sanctions against Belarus' state-controlled oil-processing and chemicals company, Belneftekhim. The U.S. last year froze the company's assets and barred American companies from doing business with it.

The United States and the European Union, which also introduced economic and travel sanctions against Belarus, have made clear that Lukashenko must free political prisoners and allow more democratic freedoms before sanctions can be lifted and relations normalized.

Lukashenko began signaling a desire for better relations with the West after Russia's decision to sharply raise prices for oil exports to Belarus — exports on which the country's Soviet-style, centrally controlled economy had long depended. He cast the release of several opposition activists this year as a goodwill gesture to the West.

The U.S. State Department welcomed the releases of opposition activists as positive steps, but urged Lukashenko to free another opposition leader, Alexander Kozulin, as a condition to start a dialogue on normalizing ties. Belarusian authorities allowed Kozulin to attend his wife's funeral, but then put him back behind bars.

Kozulin, who challenged Lukashenko in the 2006 presidential election, was arrested during a postelection protest.