USIA - State Department Report, 97-03-25

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From: The United States Information Agency (USIA) Gopher at <gopher://gopher.usia.gov>

REPORT ON STATE DEPARTMENT NOON BRIEFING, MARCH 25, 1997

(Zaire, Belarus) (450)

ZAIRE -- Acting Spokesman Dinger noted reports that Prime Minister Kengo wa Dondo will remain in office until his successor is named. "The only thing we (the United States) have to say on that is that the important thing is that a credible and broadly representative authority be established in Kinshasa -- one that is capable of managing the government and entering into negotiations with alliance rebels," Dinger said.

Dinger disputed an Agence France Presse (AFP) report that said the United States and France are not cooperating on Zaire. "In fact, it is truly very much the opposite," he said. "We and the French over the last few days have made a series of joint demarches in African capitals on Zaire -- a coordinated effort to advance the process, the effort to come to a peaceful conclusion." According to Dinger, the United States has entered into some 30 to 35 demarches with member countries of the Organization for African Unity.

The Organization of African Unity (OAU) is sponsoring a regional meeting concerning Zaire to be held March 26 in Lome, Togo. Representatives of the government of Zaire and the rebel alliance are expected to attend. Special envoy Howard Wolpe will be the U.S. representative.

BELARUS -- U.S. Ambassador to Belarus Kenneth Yalowitz has been recalled to Washington "for consultations," Dinger said. Yalowitz is expected to arrive in Washington March 27; no date has been set for his return to Belarus.

Dinger said that U.S. diplomat Serge Aleksandrov has already left Belarus. The government of Belarus ordered Aleksandrov to leave within 24 hours after he was arrested at an opposition rally on March 23 and accused of spying for the Central Intelligence Agency. The U.S. Embassy said Aleksandrov was carrying out normal diplomatic duties by observing the protest events and accused the Belarusan government of "arbitrary and unjustified" action.

"There will be an appropriate response to the expulsion of Mr. Aleksandrov, which we hope to announce soon," Dinger said. "We are still considering a full range of possibilities." One of the options, he said, is the expulsion of a Belarusan diplomat assigned in the United States.

The expulsion of Aleksandrov, according to Dinger, is "the most egregious event of this type in less than two weeks." Two U.S. private citizens were detained March 14. Earlier this month another U.S. citizen, the local executive director for the Soros Foundation, was barred from entering Belarus and accused of supporting opposition political forces in Belarus against the government under President Aleksandr Lukashenko.

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