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U.S. embassy in row with Belarus over diplomat

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Reuter / Larisa Sayenko

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Mar 24, 1997, 3:00:00 AM3/24/97
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<I><A HREF='http://www.clari.net/'>ClariNet</A> <CLARI-ITEM TYPE>story</CLARI-ITEM> <B><CLARI-ITEM SLUGWORD>BELARUS</CLARI-ITEM></B> from <CLARI-ITEM FROM>Reuter / Larisa Sayenko</CLARI-ITEM></I><BR>
<H1><CLARI-ITEM HEADLINE>U.S. embassy in row with Belarus over diplomat</CLARI-ITEM></H1>
<I><B><CLARI-ITEM COPYRIGHT>Copyright 1997 by Reuters</CLARI-ITEM></B></I> / <I><CLARI-ITEM DATE>Mon, 24 Mar 1997 7:03:02 PST</CLARI-ITEM></I><P>
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<P> MINSK, March 24 (Reuter) - A row over the expulsion of an
American diplomat was brewing in the small former Soviet
republic of Belarus on Monday as the U.S. embassy accused Minsk
authorities of ``arbitrary and unjustified'' action.</P>
<P> Serzh Alexandrov, a first secretary at the embassy which is
one of the most vociferous critics of hardline President
Alexander Lukashenko's rule, was arrested at an opposition rally
on Sunday and told to leave within 24 hours.</P>
<P> State television quoted a foreign ministry statement as
saying Alexandrov had committed ``provocative actions'' during
the nationalist protest against Lukashenko's pro-Moscow
policies.</P>
<P> Washington said Alexandrov, an ethnic Belarussian, would
comply with the expulsion order, but a spokesman said the State
Department was taking the matter very seriously.</P>
<P> The embassy said Alexandrov was carrying out normal duties
but the television news reader said he had been working as a spy
for the Central Intelligence Agency.</P>
<P> The television news reader added that the U.S. embassy, in
violation of all diplomatic norms, had been putting ``crude
pressure'' on the Interior Ministry but gave no further details.</P>
<P> ``The ambassador Kenneth Yalovitz has strongly protested
this action...and he did so at the highest level of the Belarus
government,'' the embassy spokesman said.</P>
<P> State television early on Monday showed pictures of
Alexandrov at a police station and said he had been ordered out
of the country, a move which the embassy spokesman said violated
the Vienna convention on diplomatic rights.</P>
<P> ``The embassy can confirm an embassy officer was
unjustifiably and illegally detained on March 23 by Belarus
authorities,'' he said.</P>
<P> ``The highest levels of the State Department in Washington
have been informed and they view this matter with the utmost
seriousness and gravity,'' he added.</P>
<P> The United States also protested when Russia's western
co-Slav neighbour barred the local executive director of the
Soros Foundation, Peter Bern.</P>
<P> Bern, accused of supporting the opposition, is also a U.S.
citizen and like Alexandrov attended an unsanctioned rally.</P>
<P> But state television showed Bern watching a protest from the
sidelines and embassy spokeswoman Janet Demery said Western
diplomats often watched Belarus protests ``as part of a brief to
observe the political situation but not to participate.''</P>
<P> Lukashenko, a 42-year-old former farm boss who swept to
power on promises of closer ties with Russia, has often accused
foreigners of working for secret service agencies.</P>
<P> He is supported by most of the population of 10 million, who
awarded him sweeping powers at a referendum last November, but
actively opposed by a loose union of prominent politicians,
intellectuals, students and nationalists, mostly in the capital.</P>
<P> The United States has recently cut off $40 million in aid to
Belarus because of its human rights performance.</P>
<P> Sunday's rally was the latest in a series against
Lukashenko, who won sweeping powers to shut the old parliament
and rewrite the constitution last November in a referendum
criticised by the West as undemocratic.</P>
<P> Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted the interior ministry
as saying 11 policemen and six servicemen were injured at
Sunday's protest, at which demonstrators hurled chunks of ice
and smashed police car windows while police used truncheons and
teargas to quell the protests.</P>
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