Belarus expels Swedish ambassador - report

Published time: August 03, 2012 14:56
Edited time: August 03, 2012 19:23
Image from www.studiototal.se/teddybears

The Swedish Foreign Minister says Belarus has expelled his country's ambassador to Minsk “for being too supportive of human rights.”

“Outrageous. Shows nature of [President Aleksandr Lukashenko] regime,” Carl Bildt wrote in his twitter micro-blog on Friday.

“We have said that the new Belarus ambassador to Sweden is not welcome and have asked two other diplomats to leave,” the minister added.

The Swedish Embassy in the former Soviet republic confirmed the Belarus authorities’ decision to send Ambassador Stefan Ericsson out of the country.

Two other Swedish diplomats were reportedly asked to leave as well.

Speaking to reporters in Stockholm on Friday, Bildt stated that the move followed the ambassador’s meeting with the Belarusian opposition in Minsk.

The minister pointed out that "the Lukashenko regime" brought groundless charges against the Swedish diplomat.

“Generally speaking, Sweden is being accused of supporting democratic principles and human rights in Belarus,” Bildt added, as cited by Interfax.

Later in the day the Belarus Foreign Ministry denied the diplomat had been expelled.

“It was decided not to prolong [the Ambassador’s] accreditation,” the ministry’s press-secretary Andrey Savinykh told the agency.

“Mr. Stefan Ericsson has worked in Minsk for about seven years. It’s a long time,” he observed. All these years the diplomat’s activity was “aimed at ruining Belarusian-Swedish relations rather than strengthening them,” Savinykh added.

He underlined that Belarus is ready for dialogue with Sweden. Nevertheless, if Sweden seeks to aggravate relations, “We will have no choice but to adequately respond.”

The "expulsion" comes just a month after the scandal of what has become known as the 'Teddy Bear Airdrop', when a Swedish light plane dropped dozens of toys bearing messages defending freedom of speech and democracy over Belarus.

Earlier this week, President Lukashenko dismissed top members of the military over the incident.

Comments (71)

To Clair (unregistered) 07.08.2012 18:50

I´m glad we agree on the human right violations in Belarus. It took you some time but we got there and I´m glad we are on the same page :) I´m also glad we cleared it up with the multiple nick names. The incident that brought about the dismissal of the ambassador was linked to human rights issues and it makes perfect sense mentioning it while explaning what brought about the chain of evens. Unlike yelling "Assange" the moment Sweden pops up in the headline (get it?). That is why I called it stupid.
How do you go about showing support for the opressed people of Belarus without breaking the law? Protests against the regime are deemed as illegal just like the Sovjet era and people get locked up and tortured daily. These people pulled a clever stunt that got them noticed all over the world.

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Clair (unregistered) 07.08.2012 16:56

@to Clair
Read the headline of the article first and at least get yourself to scan the article itself, second. As for the “bringing down the level of a discussion", the point was about whether this diplomatic measure as expelling the diplomat  was appropriate for an incident such is  the violation of the airspace of a sovereign state. It was not an article about Belarusians being taken into prisons which I am myself critical of. Can you see a difference? I can tell you are a graduate of neither a diplomatic school, nor of a school of war, so my arguments does not seem a ring a bell to you which is fine with me.  Even though I won’t dare to call your human rights section argument as “stupid ones” I recommend you to stick rather with RT sport section instead. I have been using different aliases here (except of under an exclamatory one "are you kidding me") for the simple reason of not being allowed a registration. How many and which ones have you been using yourself? 

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To Claire (unregistered) 07.08.2012 15:52

Let´s get one thing stright. First of dragging the Assange case into this discussion is either stupid or a means to dissinform and bring down the level of discusssion on the forum. It´s one man acused of sexual molestation vs hundreds of jailed political prisoners. Assange is wanted for questioning while people in Belarus get locked up for simply being of a different opinion than the governemnt. I hope you see the differance (can you?). The argument was stupid not you if you read it correctly. Also if that was you it means you are in fact using different aliases on the forum and third there are way worse aggressive and nonsensical comments here. I stand by my opinion and question the moral compas of any individual that defends  a regime that imprisons it´s own people for trying to speak their mind. I hope this clears up a few things.

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