Posted on 03/07/2008 8:24:21 AM PST by nuconvert
Belarus expels US ambassador
By YURAS KARMANAU, Associated Press Writer
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry on Friday demanded that the U.S. ambassador leave the country and recalled its ambassador to the U.S. over Washington's economic sanctions against the ex-Soviet nation.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the United States was "deeply disappointed" by the move.
"If they do not wish our ambassador to remain in country, our ambassador will leave," Casey said. "They have said they are recalling their ambassador, which is a very good thing, because their ambassador would certainly not be welcome here."
It was not immediately clear whether U.S. Ambassador Karen Stewart had left the country. The U.S. Embassy refused to comment and Casey said State Department officials in Washington had yet to discuss the matter with Stewart.
Washington has slapped travel restrictions on Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko and members of his inner circle, as well as financial sanctions against Belarusian authorities over their crackdown on opposition and free media.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said its demand that the U.S. ambassador leave the country had been prompted by U.S. sanctions imposed last fall 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 Belarusian Foreign Ministry said Belarus had warned the United States in advance that its response to the sanctions would be "harsh."
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.
A spokesman for President Bush called Friday's move unjustified and said it "only takes them further away from Europe and the rest of the world."
"It is unfortunate that Belarus continues its repressive actions against its own citizens and President Bush and the United States will continue to stand with the people of Belarus as they seek to live in freedom," said Bush spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
Lukashenko began signaling a desire for better relations with the West following Russia's decision to sharply hike 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 was 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.
LOL
Dictators have such eloquence at times.
Slavic, gothic, druidic, whatever you call them, they are not our friends. We have about as much in common with world of Rasputin as we do with the world of Muhammed. What on earth made us think we could ally with these people. Germany is like the transition from that world. We basically defeated Germany and brought them out of the russian slavic sphere and over to the western roman catholic sphere of influence last century. That was a big take down. Now we have Germany as our ally and buffer against the gothic empire. People who whine about our keeping Serbia in check don’t understand history. Go rewatch the start of the film Gladiator and consider the context. Those wars really happened.
They shouldn’t take it personally. We have economic sanctions against everyone.
Belarus ping!
When can the US expel our daxx State Dept and those daxx Ambassadors too?
should say withdraws
Their tractors suck, too.
For centuries the Eastern Christians(Poland, Hungary, Russia, Greece, Serbia were a bulwark against Islam, for Western Europe.
Croats, Albanians(muslims),Turks where allies of the Nazi's.
More than 500 downed U.S. airmen where rescued by Serbs.
Serbs fought off 11 Nazi divisions in WWII.
Modern day Germany's number one minority group are Turks.
Modern Day Germany sold precursor chemicals to Iraq for weapons of mass destruction.
Modern day Germany is paying back Serbia for being unable to defeat it in WWII.
Is Belarus still planning to be annexed by Russia?
Russia and Germany were allies at the start of WW2. It’s complicated, I know.
The Serbs have been in Kosovo since the seventh century. It is is the geographical cradle of their civilisation, attested to by the plethora of Christian monasteries and churches which dot its landscape. And what about the Serbs who lived here? They have fought for centuries to defend European and Christian civilisation. It was at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 that they fought (70,000 of them to the death) to keep the Islamic Ottoman Empire from rolling over the rest of Europe. The Serbian people have been a bulwark against Islamic expansion into Europe for many centuries. It was the Serbian people who opposed the aggression of Germany in the First World War and the rise of Nazism in World War II.
Poland and Hungary are not Eastern Christians.
Well most people in Belarus don’t consider us their enemies. Most of them are quite nice and civilized. It’s their resident-for-life that’s the problem.
Our kids were not orphans and although they enjoyed coming here a lot, they were ready to go home after 6 weeks. Life there is not as bad as some people think. They have dachas, fishing and barbecue, and of course the banya. Their schools were impressive. Those kids will be better educated when they graduate than our kids. Of course, they will only make $50 to $100 a month if they stay there.
Hungary and Poland each have had to fight the islamic hordes at one time or another in their respective histories.
correct?
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