Posted on 01/08/2006 6:38:15 AM PST by lizol
U.S. Warns Belarus It Must Change Its Ways
By BARRY SCHWEID AP Diplomatic Writer
Lashing out at censorship and other restrictions in Belarus, the Bush administration on Wednesday told officials in the former Soviet republic that they must end authoritarian rule or risk isolation.
At a State Department news conference, U.S. Ambassador George Krol said the Belarus government "knows it will not be able to enjoy a robust relationship with the United States and Europe if it maintains this kind of system."
With presidential elections scheduled for March 19, Krol depicted the government of President Alexander Lukashenko, who is seeking a third term, as denying political opponents access to most of the media and maintaining a "sense of insecurity and fear."
Critics of the government are mindful that "if you say something it will be seen as a critical act," Krol said.
Five opposition leaders are imprisoned; four opponents have vanished.
Ahead of the election campaign, the Belarus parliament passed a law making it a crime to discredit the state.
Krol said there was a "very dismal scenario" leading up to the elections. "Alternative views are not given the opportunity to be presented," he said.
In Minsk, the capital, Krol said, "I say these things, but state media generally do not put it on the air there."
Asked if Belarus would go the revolutionary way of Georgia and Ukraine, two other former Soviet republics that have evolved from authoritarian rule, Krol did not hazard a guess.
"It is in the hands of the Belarusian people," he said.
This is well said but senseless. Since Belarus is nearly as isolated as North Korea the warning with isolation is obsolete if not ridicolous.
There are only two possibilities to free Belarus:
1. Give Luka and his buddies enough money to spend the rest of their lifes in a nice Russian bordello.
2. Kill Luka and his buddies.
As a gentle man I prefer the first solution (even if it would cost some money), but if it should be nessecary I would also support the second one.
Or start giving people satellite dishes so they can see what's the reality in "Another World". :)
And joking aside, it's gonna be bloody difficult. Putin won't make the same mistakes he made in Ukraine during the Orange Revolution, and the opposition is much less organised in Belarus.
I think the logical future is fo Belarus to be reabsorbed into Russia.
Yep! Sad but true. Although I am sure that Luka has his price just like all other political mafia in such corrupt countries like Belarus.
Yep, but if he accepted the first solution, then some other guys might be interested in the second one.
Maybe those running the bordello. :-))
Putin is not President of Belarus Lukashenko is, the two may get along like Soroity sisters but Putin has never come anywhere near the nation wide control Belarus has. Belarus is also no where near as free as the other 'colored revolutions' states were. It is likely that a revolution there will be bloody. Putin gave money for campaigning to Ukraine, Lukashenko doesn't need campaigning money as he already has any alternative campaigns banned.
Which would be far better for the people of Belarus than would a revolution. Lukashenko is ready to use force to put down resistance. Any protest number 3 or more people can get a prison term of 3-5 years. There will be no oppurtunity to go in an demand a recount.
Do you think that Lukashenko would hand over his power to Pres. Putin without any kickback? Is such a szenario realistic?
Personally I would prefer Russian sovereignty over Belarus than a continuation of the current dictatorship.
If he'd hand it over to anyone willingly it'd be Putin.
With Lukashenko they have at least the hope that they will overthrow him some day. Incorporated to Russia? It would be the end of the Belarusian nation and the biggest catastrophe pf the Polish foreign policy since WWII.
Translation: Lukasz sees Belarus as a piece of Poland and wants it returned to the Polish Imperial Empire.
Demographic data from the CIA World Factbook
[edit]
Population
10,300,483 (July 2005 est.)
[edit]
Age structure
0-14 years: 16% (male 839,292/female 804,738)
15-64 years: 69.5% (male 3,481,432/female 3,672,991)
65 years and over: 14.6% (male 498,717/female 1,003,313) (2005 est.)
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Median age
Total: 37.03 years
Male: 34.32 years
Female: 39.7 years (2005 est.)
[edit]
Population growth rate
-0.09% (2005 est.)
[edit]
Birth rate
10.83 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)
[edit]
Death rate
14.15 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)
[edit]
Net migration rate
2.42 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)
[edit]
Sex ratio
At birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
Under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.5 male(s)/female
Total population: 0.88 male(s)/female (2005 est.)
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Infant mortality rate
Total: 13.37 deaths/1,000 live births
Male: 14.3 deaths/1,000 live births
Female: 12.39 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)
[edit]
Life expectancy at birth
Total population: 68.72 years
Male: 63.03 years
Female: 74.69 years (2005 est.)
[edit]
Total fertility rate
1.39 children born/woman (2005 est.)
[edit]
HIV/AIDS
Adult prevalence rate: 0.3% (2001 est.)
People living with HIV/AIDS: 15,000 (2001 est.)
Deaths: 1,000 (2001 est.)
[edit]
Nationality
Noun: Belarusian(s)
Adjective: Belarusian
[edit]
Ethnic groups
Belarusian 81.2%, Russian 11.4%, Polish 3.9%, Ukrainian 2.4%, other 1.1% (1999 census)
Prior to World War II, Jews were the second largest ethnic group in what is today Belarus, and comprised more than 50 percent of the population in cities and towns. By 1989, Jews accounted for only 1.1% of the population, mainly due to the Holocaust WWII and emigration from the Soviet Union to nations such as the United States and Israel. [1]
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Religions
In 1997, 80% of the religious population belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church, while other religions, such as Islam, Catholicism, Protestant Christianity, and Judaism, make up the other 20 percent. During the times of the Soviet Union the majority of population was atheistic, and this situation did not change significantly with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, although the number of people declaring themselves religious grows. Also, many atheists associate themselves with Eastern Orthodoxy referring to cultural associations, rather than religious ones.
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Languages
Belarusian, Russian, other
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Literacy
Definition: age 15 and over can read and write
Total population: 99.6%
Male: 99.8%
Female: 99.5% (2003 est.)
Also from Wiki:
History
Main article: History of Belarus
Map of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, which eventually became the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Between the 6th and 8th centuries, what is now known as Belarus was settled by the Slavs, who still dominate the country. The Early East Slavs gradually came into contact with the Varangians and were organized under the state of Rus', mainly in the area around modern-day Polatsk in the northern part of the country. In the 13th century, the state was badly affected by a Mongol invasion, and eventually parts of Rus' were swallowed up by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The core lands of the duchy were teritories around Kernav?, Trakai and Vilnius cities and Samogitia. During this time, the belarussian teritories were largely at peace, but duchy itself were at many wars and had famous victories against Mongols in the east, Turks in the south and Teutonic knights in the west. By the 15th century, the Grand Duchy stretched across much of Eastern Europe, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.
On February 2, 1386, the recently-crowned King of Poland Grand Duke Jogaila, joined the Grand Duchy with Poland in a personal union under one monarch. This personal union eventually resulted in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a new state created in 1569. The union was transformed by the May Constitution of 1791, Europe's first modern codified national constitution, which abolished all state subdivisions and merged everything into the Kingdom of Poland. However, by 1795, the state was divided and annexed by Imperial Russia, Prussia and Austria in the course of the Partitions of Poland. Belarus teritories remained part of the Russian Empire until being occupied by Germany during World War I. Belarus first declared independence on 25 March 1918, forming the Belarusian People's Republic. The Republic was, however, short-lived, and the regime was overthrown soon after the German withdrawal. In 1919 Belarus became the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR), and after russian occupation of eastern Lithuania merged into the Lithuanian-Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. After the Polish-Soviet War ended in 1921, Byelorussian lands were split between Poland and the recreated Byelorussian SSR, which became a founding member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922. In September 1939, the Soviet Union annexed the Polish-held Byelorussian land as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
In 1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, invading the Soviet Union. Byelorussia was captured soon afterwards, and remained in Nazi hands until 1945. Much the country was destroyed and much of its population was killed in the German invasion. The Jewish population of Belarus was also devastated during the Holocaust. It took until 1971 for the population of Belarus to reach the pre-war level. The Jewish population, however, never recovered. [3] After the war ended, Byelorussia was among the 51 signatories to the founding of the United Nations, in 1945. The reconstruction that took place in Belarus after the war brought comparative prosperity to the Soviet Republic. During this time, Belarus became a major center of manufacturing in the western region of the USSR. The increase in jobs, brought in a huge immigrant population from the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. [4] During Joseph Stalin's era, a policy of Russification was started to "protect" Byelorussia SSR from influences by the West. This policy involved sending Russians from various parts of the Soviet Union and placing them in key positions in the Byelorussian SSR government. The official use of the Belarusian language and other cultural aspects were also limited by Moscow. After Stalin died in 1953, his successor Nikita Khrushchev continued the Russification program, stating in the Byelorussian SSR capital of Minsk that "The sooner we all start speaking Russian, the faster we shall build communism." [5]
In 1986, a section of Belarus was affected by the fallout from the Chernobyl power plant accident in neighboring Ukraine. When Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev began pushing through his Perestroika plan, the Belarusian people delivered a petition to him in December of 1986 explaining the loss of their culture. This event has been coined by historians as the "cultural Chernobyl." [6] In June of 1988, mass graves were discovered at the city of Kurapaty. The graves allegedly contained about 250,000 of Stalin's victims. Some contend that this discovery was proof that the Soviet government was trying to erase the Belarusian people and caused some to seek independence.[7] Belarus declared independence from the Soviet Union on 27 July 1990, and the BSSR formally became the Republic of Belarus on 25 August 1991. Around that time, Stanislav Shushkevich became Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus, the top leadership position in Belarus. Shushkevich, along with Boris Yeltsin of Russia and Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine met on December 8, 1991 in Belavezhskaya Pushcha to formally declare the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Since 1994, the country has been led by Alexander Lukashenko, who has been cited by Human Rights Watch for various violations of human rights and is generally regarded as a dictator by Western standards.
As of 2005, there appears to be a movement in Belarus towards reuniting with Russia. In November 2005, a draft constitution was sent to both Vladimir Putin and Lukashenko for approval.[8] However, it is unlikely that such a step will be taken with Lukashenko in power, as credible sources have leaked information that Lukashenko would insist on sharing presidential powers with Putin on a federal level - something akin to the Governor of the American State of Texas being on par with the President of the United States!
LOL Totally wrong, I would like to see Belarusian speaking and nationalistic independent Belarus.
Why? Things can not get worse in Belarus than in the moment. I would see some improvement for the Belorussian people if they would come into the Russian pool again. It is no doubt that Russia is working better as a nation than Belarus although I do not like Putin either.
I have not invented the wheel. Therefore my opinion is not fixed on this issue. What are the arguments for a conservation of Luka's dictatorship??!
There is no any arguments for a conservation of Luka’s dictatorship, this system must be defeated and this is possible. Think about it, would you prefer to live some period of time under dictator or under less repressive (at least today) foreign mafia forever?
"I wonder."
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