Lukashenko Misses the Mark :: Charter'97 :: News

Last week media came up with the data about criminal links between the Belarusian authorities and terrorists. For instance, the DPA agency with a reference to the CIA sources circulated on October 31 information that “Belarus is a leading seller of weaponry to the Islamic guerillas’. The report was broadcasted on-line by Russian Internet sources utro-ru, gazeta.ru and Belarusian service of radio “Svaboda”. The report reveals that from the beginning of this year Belarus signed deals on the supply of arms to the Palestinian and Albanian separatist groups, worth $500mln. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry called this information deceitful. However, the DPA allegations aren’t the only leak in this regard. Minsk would face more trouble commenting on the following data. According to the information from the source, close to the competent international structures, during the 56th session of the UN Assembly General among the members of the Security Council there had been disseminated a document, which chronologically details the activities of the Belarusian regime at the world ammunition market. The emphasis there was placed on the supplies of weaponry to the states, which are considered sponsors of world terrorists.

They say that this document produced quite a negative impression on Kremlin. It’s no secret that the activism of the Belarusian president in the sphere of military and technical cooperation with such rogue states as Iran, Iraq or Libya was oftentimes blamed on Russians. Rumors were spreading that Belarus brokered arms deals between Russia and rogues. “MN” already wrote that, having acquired the newest samples of Russian weaponry on low prices, the Belarusian ally unexpectedly re-exported the Moscow’s weapons to Libya. Consequently, the arms miraculously got into the hands of Chechen insurgents.

As a result, there followed a silent but serious conflict. Kasyanov harshly demanded from Minsk to strengthen control over the movement of Russian weaponry. The then secretary of the Security Council of Russia Sergei Ivanov urged the Belarusian allies to correct the situation. The snag is, the sale of ammunition was controlled by the Belarusian colleague of Ivanov, former secretary of the Security Council Viktor Sheiman. Apparently, the two high officials were on quite poor terms.

Remarkably, no public reaction of the official Minsk followed in this regard. Much noise was made around the recent arrival of Iraqi officers, who came to be trained in Belarus. The information first appeared in the independent Belarusian media right after September 11. Two official institutions – the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry hurried on to refute these allegations. However, according to certain informed sources, apart from the Iraqi soldiers, there also came citizens of other Muslim countries, including the Palestinians.

But Poles went even further than that. During his successful visit to Moscow Polish president Kvasnevsky presented to Vladimir Putin a series of his own initiatives. One of them was the idea of holding in Warsaw an international conference on combating terrorism. The Forum is due to get started on November 6, 2001. The US president will address its delegates through a satellite link-up. At first, they even planned to invite there the Belarusian leader. If Lukashenko was indeed invited there this would be a real breakthrough. On one hand, EU and USA recognized the September presidential elections in Belarus as undemocratic, but on the other they confessed that the policy of isolating Belarus is fallacious. In the European capitals officials started debating on the necessity of altering policy toward Minsk.

Nonetheless, they decided at the last moment not to invite Lukashenko there. Instead, Belarus will be represented by chief of his administration Ural Latypov (by the way, professor Latypov used to major in fighting international terrorism). What’s the reason behind the refusal to invite Lukashenko to Warsaw? May be the scandals over the consignment of ammunition to terrorists?