Europe’s Last Dictator in New York :: Charter'97 :: News

On September 14-16 New York hosts a U.N. world summit dedicated to the 60th anniversary of this organization. 175 leaders of world states are to gather in New York. Some Belarusian media have hurried to announce that Alyaksandr Lukashenka is sure to arrive for the session, and, as it was five years ago, even going to deliver a speech in the U.N. As a reason for that Belarus’ being one of the founders of the U.N. is mentioned. Thus its illegitimate ruler, who came to power through mass election fraud, must be allowed to take part in the session. Lukashenka’s attendance of the U.N. summit is really possible because of that, but according to the experts, the visit would be of little help to Lukashenka and all the more so to Belarus. His visit to the U.S.A. could be used only by primitive Belarusian propaganda. As a matter of fact, that’s the reason why such tyrants as Fidel Castro and Robert Mugabe are coming to the U.N. sessions.

Lukashenka certainly by no means would be able to legitimize himself at the U.N. session. The maximum benefit for him is to be one of the 175 presidents at a common picture. After the last visit of Lukashenka to the U.S.A five years ago, all i’s are dotted, as far as the public image of the Belarusian dictator is concerned. It is confirmed by the occasions when Lukashenka and his entourage were not allowed to the meetings of the heads of the world states.

In 2002 Lukashenka was banned entry to the Czech Republic to the NATO summit. In 2004 the Belarusian head of state did not come to the NATO summit in Istanbul. On the same year Sports and Tourism minister of Belarus Yury Sivakou, placed on the list of people implicated in abductions of oppositionists, was not allowed to participate in the Olympic Games in Greece. This year the chairperson of the Central Election Committee Lidziya Yarmoshyna failed to go to Turkey for summer holidays, because elections’ results had been rigged.

Lukashenka has visited Europe a few times over the recent years. He went skiing as a private person. However, recently, after the Belarusian regime increased repressions, foreign diplomats say that Europe do not want to see him even in this capacity. Even in Moscow at the celebration of the Victory Day attended by the U.S. President and the heads of the E.U. countries, Lukashenka was isolated. He spent in Moscow only a few hours, and after that he was asked to leave. They say Putin had done that not to irritate Bush by a disreputable figure of the Belarusian dictator.

It’s hard to expect that all presidents of the CIS countries would decide to support Lukashenka and arrive to Minsk in 2006 for another CIS summit. Russian and Western media have informed about this danger many times. Representation level of many states could be reduced to a representation level of Turkmenistan in Kazan…

This year the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called Belarus one of the six world outposts of tyranny. President George Bush during his trip to the Eastern European countries this spring called our country “the last dictatorship in Europe”. He added that one of the roles the U.S. could play in this process could be speaking openly that Belarus needs freedom.

Is it possible to imagine the meeting of Bush with Lukashenka against the background of these statements? In 2000 Lukashenka managed to catch the hand of a bewildered Bill Clinton and make a picture with him. The picture had been propagated by Belarusian state-run media, concealing the fact that Lukashenka was not able to say a word to Clinton, as he does not know English (and any other foreign language as well). This time it looks like Lukashenka’s overfamiliarity and ill-breeding won’t help. Even if he would be able to infiltrate the U.N. summit, like Castro and Mugabe.

“I think it would be rather useful for Lukashenka to attend the summit in New York. He would come there as a petty dictator, whose influence in the world is non-existent, and who could only influence the further worsening of the state of affairs in Belarus. The attitude towards him would be unequivocal; there won’t be any meetings with the world political and intellectual elite. I think that even Putin, who is still concerned by his image, would shun appearing with Lukashenka in public. And this voyage can bring about negative consequences. Seeing the real attitude towards Lukashenka of most of the countries of the world, even those countries that made a deal with the regime, could refuse dealing with it any longer,” said former deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus, international coordinator of the civil initiative Charter’97, one of the leaders of the Council of Civil initiatives “Free Belarus” Andrei Sannikov.