Elements of "dictatorship" in Belarus-UN envoy

GENEVA, Sep 27 (Reuters) A UN human rights envoy today accused the government of Belarus of acting like a dictatorship and called for an international probe into how it finances itself.

Special rapporteur on human rights in Belarus Adrian Severin told the UN's top rights watchdog that a repressive government was buying the acquiescence of the population with a social safety net for which the source of financing was unclear.

Saying that the ''unreformed'' Belarus economy could not generate the resources for ''such a protectionist, paternalist social policy,'' Severin said that international organisations should investigate where the money came from.

''The appropriate international institutions should check if the extra economic funds are not originated in some kind of illicit activities,'' he told the UN Human Rights Council.

''Since my last report, the human rights situation has constantly deteriorated to such an extent that one could identify within the current Belarussian regime the elements usually defining a dictatorship,'' he added.

Civilian and political rights were limited, cultural rights were ignored and social and economic rights were promoted in a discriminatory way, he said.

But the former Romanian foreign minister's remarks were condemned as slanderous by Belarus, while a number of countries, both members of the 47-state Council and observers, accused him of overstepping his mandate ''The content of his reports are a clear attempt to stigmatise and slander the Republic of Belarus,'' a Belarussian diplomat told the Council.

The representative of Russia, one of Minsk's staunchest allies, accused the independent envoy of ''bias'' and ''contempt'' for Belarus and urged the Council to rescind his mandate to investigate alleged abuse in the former Soviet state.

Mr Severin, who has not been allowed to visit Belarus, was officially presenting his annual report, which was made public several months ago.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, is accused by the United States and other Western powers of hounding opponents, closing down independent media and regularly falsifying elections, including last March's vote in which he was re-elected for a third term.

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