Belarus resumes Italian holidays for orhpans
MINSK, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Belarus approved a deal with Italy on Thursday to resume sending orphans on holiday to live with families there, a year after it stopped the visits because an Italian couple tried to keep a child in their care.
Before last year, some 30,000 orphaned Belarussian children went on holiday to Italy each year, many of them suffering from the effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which struck Belarus more than any other country.
Minsk suspended the holidays in 2006, after an Italian couple hosting 10-year-old Viktoria Moroz tried to hide her in northern Italy. The couple said she was being mistreated at her orphanage, a charge Belarussian authorities deny.
She was eventually found by police. On Thursday, lawmakers ratified an agreement setting down rules for the holiday visits, allowing them to resume.
"The accord sets down strict deadlines for the return home of Belarussian children after such holidays," Education Minister Alexander Radkov told the chamber.
He said the pact does not allow families hosting the orphans in Italy to subsequently adopt them.
Minsk has tightened conditions for the foreign adoption of Belarussian children on the grounds that they are protecting the children from negative Western influences.
It authorised only 30 foreign adoptions last year, but Radkov has said he hopes to allow up to 200 in 2007.
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko is accused by Western countries of crushing fundamental rights, but remains popular at home for his policies of generous state benefits and firm state control of the economy. (Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky, Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Golnar Motevalli)
Before last year, some 30,000 orphaned Belarussian children went on holiday to Italy each year, many of them suffering from the effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which struck Belarus more than any other country.
Minsk suspended the holidays in 2006, after an Italian couple hosting 10-year-old Viktoria Moroz tried to hide her in northern Italy. The couple said she was being mistreated at her orphanage, a charge Belarussian authorities deny.
She was eventually found by police. On Thursday, lawmakers ratified an agreement setting down rules for the holiday visits, allowing them to resume.
"The accord sets down strict deadlines for the return home of Belarussian children after such holidays," Education Minister Alexander Radkov told the chamber.
He said the pact does not allow families hosting the orphans in Italy to subsequently adopt them.
Minsk has tightened conditions for the foreign adoption of Belarussian children on the grounds that they are protecting the children from negative Western influences.
It authorised only 30 foreign adoptions last year, but Radkov has said he hopes to allow up to 200 in 2007.
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko is accused by Western countries of crushing fundamental rights, but remains popular at home for his policies of generous state benefits and firm state control of the economy. (Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky, Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Golnar Motevalli)
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