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  • Lukashenko spurns EU invitation

    Lukashenko spurns EU invitation

    Story from BBC NEWS:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/ europe/8029599.stm

    Published: 2009/05/01 15:51:52 GMT


    Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko will not attend an EU summit in
    Prague next Thursday, despite an invitation from the Czech Republic.

    "Mr Lukashenko is not on the list of participants - the deadline has
    already gone," the Czech prime minister's spokesman told the BBC on
    Friday.

    The Czechs, who hold the EU presidency, will host an "Eastern
    Partnership" summit with six former Soviet states.

    The EU's relations with Mr Lukashenko have been frosty until recently.

    For years, EU member states and the United States have criticised him
    for authoritarian methods, such as muzzling the press and jailing
    dissidents.

    But the EU has stepped up diplomatic contacts with Belarus since the
    authorities in Minsk released political prisoners last year. The EU
    also suspended a travel ban it had imposed on Mr Lukashenko and other
    top Belarussian officials.

    The Czech government spokesman, Jiri Potuznik, said it was "up to the
    Belarus government to decide who would represent it" in Prague and that
    the participating countries were "supposed to send their number one or
    two".

    He said he could not confirm who Belarus would send, but made it clear
    that it would not be Mr Lukashenko.

    The EU wants to develop closer energy and trade links with Belarus and
    five other ex-Soviet states: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and
    Ukraine.

    Mr Lukashenko received a personal invitation last month from Czech
    Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg in Minsk.

    On Monday, the Belarus leader met Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican on
    his first official visit to Western Europe since 1995.
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