Lukashenko Avoids Questions About Giving Saddam Hussein Shelter in Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

Alexander Lukashenko engaged in the on-line phone communications with the readers of “Sovetskaya Belorussiya” and “Komsomolskaya Pravda”. Radio Svaboda correspondent Valery Kalinovsky tried to pose his question to Lukashenko, for usually the non-state correspondents have no access to the incumbent, being denied accreditation at the press briefings with him. So, he tried to ask Alexander Lukashenko whether he is ready to provide asylum to the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who faced US take-it-or-leave-it resolution.

However, those willing to talk to the president encountered a few obstacles. A multi-channel phone link was engaged all the time. One could hope to get through after a 1-hour autodialing of the number. Secondly, the caller had to convince operators that the question is worth asking.

A female operator, who picked up the receiver when the Radio Svaboda correspondent called, first recorded the question and then found an excuse for not passing the question to Lukashenko: “I am an operator and we give no word to the journalists”. Later, after a two-hour conference, “Sovietskaya Belorussiya” and “Komsomolskaya Pravda” journalists confirmed that they had been ordered to filtrate the questions.