Belarus outrages West by evicting diplomats

AN ESCALATING conflict between the West and Belarus entered round two yesterday when the republic's president gave a group of ambassadors one more week to clear out of their residences in the capital, Minsk.

Alexander Lukashenko's decision to extend the deadline deferred - but did not defuse - a bizarre showdown that is deepening his small nation's reputation as the troublemaker of Eastern Europe.

Foreign diplomats based in the former Soviet republic, between Russia and Poland, have accused Belarus of trying to violate the Vienna Convention by ordering them out of a residential complex to make repairs to the plumbing and sewage system.

Belarussian authorities told the diplomats - most of them ambassadors - that they would not be allowed to return when the work was complete, but would have to find new premises.

The convention, which was last breached when Iranians seized the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, places diplomatic residences out of bounds to the domestic authorities.

The diplomats represent 20 countries, including Russia, Italy, France, Germany and the United States. Yesterday was the deadline for their eviction until Mr Lukashenko's intervention.

Some of the countries involved - notably the Americans - threatened to recall their representatives if it went ahead. The British residence is not involved, but an embassy spokesman in Minsk said yesterday that the Foreign Office was "prepared to recall our ambassador for consultations if the measures had gone ahead."

He added: "Everyone accepts that the host country has the right to ask them to move premises. What they object to is being given an ultimatum to do so in a short time."

The dispute is the latest of many international incidents for Mr Lukashenko, a former collective farm director, who has earned a reputation as an eccentric but alarming dictator sitting on the faultline between Nato and Russia.

There was an outcry in Washington in 1995 after two US pilots were killed when their sports balloon was shot down after it drifted over the Belarus border during a competition.

The following year, Mr Lukashenko held a referendum extending his term in office and giving him sweeping control over the judiciary and parliament. During his four years in power, he has been accused of suppressing opponents and of seizing control of the media. New laws are being planned to make insulting the president a criminal offence.

The outcry has been led by the US ambassador, Daniel Speckhardt. On Monday, as Belarussian workmen welded shut a gate to his residence, he and his family stood outside waving an American flag in protest.

The diplomatic complex, called Drozdy, is near Mr Lukashenko's residence. Suspicions abound that the president wants to take it over for his own officials. He has stated that he cannot tolerate Western missions, particularly the United States, as neighbours.

Mr Lukashenko has made no secret of his distaste for Washington and his fondness for the old Soviet Union. Soviet-era textbooks have been reintroduced into schools, as has a renamed version of the Pioneers, the Communist Party's children's organisation.

Yesterday, the decision to extend the deadline was represented by his staff as a munificent act, brought about by the "personal intervention" of the president.

But this is unlikely to impress the diplomats. Their reaction to the threatened eviction has ranged from apoplectic - the French called it "unbearable and unacceptable" - to polite disapproval.

The latter was typified by one of Belarus's few friends, Russia, whose prime minister, Sergei Kiriyenko, was in Minsk yesterday. The Russian Foreign Ministry said: "Understanding the need for renovation of the compound's territory, we still consider this decision should be taken in accordance with international law."