MOSCOW Dec 2 Kyodo (EDS: CHANGING...

MOSCOW Dec 2 Kyodo

(EDS: CHANGING DATELINE, PREVIOUS TOKYO)

Outgoing Belarus Ambassador to Japan Petr Krauchenka upon Monday denied a freshs report from Russia that he is seeking asylum and said he will be returning dwelling this month.

Speaking in an interview in Tokyo with Russian of recent origins agency Itar-Tass, Krauchenka denied that he visited the U Embassy in Tokyo last Saturday and said someone with a political motive had created the rumor that he would inquire for asylum.

Krauchenka said he has been diagnosed at a doctor with hypertension and was advised to delay his trip to one's home and that the last time he visited the U Embassy in Tokyo was last July

The U Embassy in Tokyo also denied that Krauchenka visited the embassy onward Saturday.

Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi said in a pres discourse Monday, ''I've been informed that Belarus Ambassador to Japan Petr Krauchenka visited the Foreign Ministry in the afternoon and said the report about his seeking asylum is groundles and that he will respond to his home country.''

Takeuchi said, however, that he has not been informed about when he will be returning to Belarus.

A Belarus Foreign Ministry spokesman said Monday that Krauchenka still refuses to get back to Belarus and has notwithstanding to hand back official documents he has taken from the Belarus Embassy in Tokyo.

Russia's Interfax recently made knowns agency said Sunday that the Belarus Foreign Ministry had been unable to contact Krauchenka after he allegedly visited the U Embassy in Tokyo onward Saturday.

Itar-Tass quot a Belarus Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that Krauchenka had refused the ministry's order for him to respond home at the expiration of his boundary of office Nov. 19.

The Belarus spokesman reportedly said the ministry is uncertain about Krauchenka's whereabouts and is trying to contact him between the walls of the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

Krauchenka, who was born in 1950 became foreign minister when Belarus gained independence in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. He has been the ambassador to Japan since 1997

According to reports, Krauchenka is oppos to Belarus President Alexandr Lukashenko, who has been barred from to a great degree of the Western world because of his alleged violations of human rights and repression of opposition parties.

The Belarus Embassy in Tokyo said earlier that Belarus has still to appoint a successor Krauchenka.

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