IWPR - February 21st, 2003

International community unlikely to be impressed by sentiments expressed at weekend's Stop The War demonstration.

By Andrei Osmolovsky in Minsk

Iraq's ambassador to Belarus has thanked the republic's leaders for their solidarity after the February 15 anti-war rally was effectively taken over by pro-government activists who voiced support for Saddam Hussein. Instead of joining in the spirit of the marches held worldwide to protest against the United States' plan to attack Iraq, organisers of the Belarus gathering chose to express their sympathies for Baghdad and support for President Alexander Lukashenko.

Parliamentary deputies - including Sergei Kostyan, deputy head of a national assembly commission on international affairs and CIS relations - were seen to chant, "Long live Saddam! Long live Lukashenko!" Iraqi ambassador Salman Zeidan held a press conference on February 18 to thank the administration for its support - and refused to rule out the possibility of Hussein visiting Minsk one day in the future.

This development is unlikely to impress the international community, which has already condemned the Lukashenko administration for its poor human rights record.

And it may draw further unwelcome attention from the US, which has voiced concern over Belarus' links to Baghdad and possible illegal arms sales.

The pro-administration tone of the rally came as a shock to the ordinary Belarusians who attended the event in the capital's Friendship of Peoples Park.

Student Denis Koidanovsky told IWPR that he had come to the meeting to protest against a possible war in Iraq. "I didn't think that it would be a meeting of Lukashenko supporters," he said, expressing a commonly held view.

Opposition activist and former deputy minister Andrei Sannikov believes the government agreed to the gathering, which was attended by 1,500 people, to boost the president and show solidarity with Hussein. "They were trying to show off, and prove that these regimes have a lot in common," he claimed, referring to the international isolation of both countries.

Analysts believe that the Belarus government is opposing US attempts to disarm Hussein over fears that once American troops have secured Iraq, United Nations weapons inspectors may find weapons either imported from Belarus or manufactured with its help.

Minsk has been accused of selling ordnance to Iraq in defiance of the UN embargo for several years. Nearly three years ago, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported that Belarus had, with the help of Russia, modernised Baghdad's anti-aircraft defence system.

Earlier last year, US State Secretary adviser Steven Pifer visited Minsk to investigate this issue, and later announced that information on Belarus alleged links with an arms trade with "outcast countries" and extremist organisations came from sources "which can be trusted".

In November 2002, Washington DC even hosted a conference titled "Axis of Evil: Belarus - The Missing Link", during which republican congressman Christopher Smith said, "There is evidence that Belarus provided equipment and weaponry to Iraq in bypass of the UN sanction."

A month later, Bruce Jackson - president of the US committee on NATO - visited Minsk and also accused the authorities of selling military technology to Iraq. The Belarusian foreign minister Mikhail Khvostov and defence minister Leonid Maltsev failed to convince him otherwise.

These allegations contributed to America's decision to deny travel visas to Lukashenko and his top ministers last autumn, US ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow confirmed.

However, Minsk has repeatedly denied all such charges. "The Belarus republic strictly observes all existing international sanctions, including those on Iraq," said Alexander Baichorov, head of the internal affairs ministry's department for international security.

"We have a complex and stable system of export control, which the US helped us to construct," he said. "No contract goes to Iraq until it has been approved by a relevant UN committee."

But Sannikov suggests that the government has so far failed to refute the accusations reported in the western press - and told IWPR that he believes that Belarusian military specialists may be in Iraq today.

The tone of Saturday's protest seems to leave little doubt as to where the Belarus government stands on Iraq, he said.

The rally was organised by the Federation of Belarus Trade Unions, FBT, which is led by Leonid Kozik, a former deputy head of the presidential administration, who makes no secret of his support for Baghdad.

In his official capacity within the presidential administration, Kozik was in charge of the Belarusian-Iraqi commission for trade and economic cooperation. He visited Baghdad on several occasions, where he met with Hussein and gave him several official messages from Lukashenko.

Traditionally, relations between the two presidents have been warm. Last year Lukashenko wished Hussein victory in his October 2002 referendum, which asked the Iraqi people if they wanted their leader to stay in power for seven more years.

Andrei Osmolovsky is a reporter for BelaPAN information agency in Minsk.