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To: goldsnow who wrote (12573)	6/9/1998 6:39:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116796

Belarus evicts US ambassador By Alan Philps in Moscow telegraph.co.uk THE former Soviet republic of Belarus, which has one of Europe's most autocractic governments, set a new low in relations with the West yesterday by trying to lock the American ambassador out of his residence. The authorities in Belarus told the Americans and staffs at 21 other embassies who share a residential complex outside the capital, Minsk, to move so that "repairs" could be carried out. Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus, has a residence in the same complex, and it seems that he no longer wants to be neighbours with the Americans. Daniel Speckhard, the American ambassador, called a news conference to condemn the enforced move, which he said was against the Vienna Convention, which laid down rules on diplomatic immunity. When he returned to his residence, he found a party of workmen already welding shut a gate. "This concerns me greatly," said the ambassador, accompanied by his wife and three young children. "If the government wants to lock us out, we will have to leave the country." The Speckhard family waved the Stars and Stripes in a gesture of defiance outside the gates of the complex and appealed to Mr Lukashenko to reverse the decision. If they were forced to move against their will, he said, "it will be the first incident of this kind since the end of the Cold War". Under the eccentric rule of Mr Lukashenko, Belarus - a nation of 10 million squeezed between Russia and Poland - has been written off by the rest of Europe. The president has tried to preserve the Stalinist system of state control, ordering shopkeepers to lower prices and fixing the exchange rate of the national currency. Unique among modern European leaders, the president has expressed admiration for Hitler, and his police regularly beat and detain dissidents. Last week the offence of insulting the president was made punishable by five years in prison. Relations between the former chairman of a collective farm and the diplomatic corps are strained, and he has accused Western envoys of plotting against him. Last night the American ambassador gained entry to his home through a gate which had escaped the attention of the welders. He has been told to leave by tomorrow. The State Department said it had no comment to make until it gathered more information.