Will Prague grant visa for NATO summit to "Europe's last dictator" Lukashenko?

Next week's NATO summit in Prague will be a major international event, with 46 heads of state planning to attend. However, one particular head of state, the autocratic president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, may not be given the chance to rub shoulders with the likes of George Bush and Jacques Chirac. Though the Belarussian delegation applied for visas to come to Prague for the summit almost two weeks ago, the Czech Foreign Ministry is still considering whether to grant them permission to enter the country.

Will Prague grant visa for NATO summit to "Europe's last dictator" Lukashenko?

The Czech foreign minister, Cyril Svoboda, indicated last week that the visa request would be rejected, adding that his ministry was looking into the recent arrest of an opposition leader in Belarus, where neither real opposition nor a free press are tolerated. Indeed, Alexander Lukashenko is often described as the last dictator in Europe. We must, said Mr Svoboda, express solidarity with those who fight for human rights and democracy, and that could include rejecting a visa request from a head of state.

Though the Czech government was due to announce its decision at the end of last week, in the end no announcement was made. Now, however, the simmering diplomatic row has intensified, with Belarus, outraged by the Czech government's vacillation, launching a strong offensive on Monday. The delay over the visa decision was, said a spokesperson for Alexander Lukashenko, "insulting to Belarus and humiliating to our people." Furthermore, Minsk has threatened a "very harsh" - though unspecified - reaction if the Czech Republic snubs their leader; denying the Belarussian delegation visas would be a "crude violation of international law", read a statement on an official website.

Belarus is a member of the NATO-affiliated Partnership for Peace, and NATO Secretary General George Robertson told reporters on Monday that the issue of who to invite to the summit was a matter for the alliance itself, not Czech officials. The Czech Foreign Ministry however is showing no signs of a willingness to comply with the Belarussian delegation's visa request and - with only nine days to go before the NATO summit begins - is not even saying when it will announce its decision.