Lithuanian officials reject ex-president Adamkus' criticism over policy towards Belarus (Jan 3 2011, BNS)
Adamkus had called "Lithuania's foreign policy towards Belarus a catastrophe", and his successor's spokesman said on Monday that "Belarus' isolation for the past 10 years has been a catastrophe and mistake." Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Audronius Azubalis said efforts to keep a more active dialogue with the official Minsk has been a common EU position.
In an interview published on Monday, Adamkus, the former Lithuania's president of two terms, said that Lithuania had "gone overboard in trying to please" Alexander Lukashenko who has again come under severe criticism from the West for brutal treatment of opposition after presidential elections last month.
"A catastrophe has occurred in our policy regarding Belarus," Adamkus said in an interview to Lietuvos Rytas daily.
"I believe we have evidently gone overboard in trying to please Alexander Lukashenko. We boasted of finding nearly goldmines of new relations in Belarus, however, the promised gold was a few weeks later replaced by the rubber sticks that battered the illusions. Western democracies were astounded, and we just made fools of ourselves," said the ex-president.
"The president does not evaluate and comment on comments or opinions of separate politicians in any way, but, as I had said, the president believes Belarus' isolation for the past 10 years has been a catastrophe and mistake," Linas Balsys, the Lithuanian president's spokesman, told journalists.
In his words, efforts to normalize relations with the neighboring country have produced results in striving towards the democratization of Belarus.
"Certain positive steps have been seen, including the registration of all presidential candidates who were given a chance to speak up. Of course, it doesn't justify and redeem everything that happened after the vote, but without the contacts, the first steps towards the normalization of relations with the neighboring country, we had hardly had those first shoots stated in the OSCE report," Balsys said.
Meanwhile, Azubalis expressed support for the Vilnius-based European Humanities University and the Belarusian opposition.
"Efforts to seek contacts and attempts to activate dialogue with the official Minsk were part of a common EU opinion that such actions have to be taken and such actions have been taken," the minister told journalists.
Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko has been criticized after the militia dispelled tens of thousands of protesters in Minsk who were holding an action against election results. More than 600 people were detained in the Minsk developments.
