BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

11/04/2006

EU Snubs Belarus President Over Election

Staff and agencies

By ROBERT WIELAARD

LUXEMBOURG - The European Union told Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday that he was unwelcome in the 25-nation bloc after his re-election last month in a vote observers said was rigged.

Officials said further measures may follow, including more visa bans and a freeze on assets belonging to Lukashenko and other Belarus officials.

The visa ban marked the first time the EU has prohibited the head of state of a neighboring nation from visiting the union. It has taken the same steps against the leaders of Zimbabwe and Myanmar.

Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, who chaired the meeting, said the EU "demanded the immediate release and full rehabilitation of all political detainees, as well as respect for democratic rights."

The EU said Lukashenko and the other 30 officials are "responsible for the violations of international electoral standards and international human rights law, as well as for the crackdown on civil society and democratic opposition."

"We want to keep the people of Belarus on our side, so we will try to cultivate relations with people of the opposition," he told reporters.

"I am not completely satisfied because the list should be bigger," Swoboda said. "We want to ask the (Belarus) opposition to ask for an assessment" of the list.

Besides Lukashenko, the list included his ministers of justice, information and education, the chair of the Belarus lower house of parliament, the chair and his deputy of the Belarus state security service, eight election commission officials, the head of the state broadcaster and three judges.

Opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich won 6.1 percent of the vote. Milinkevich, who held talks with EU lawmakers last week, had called for hundreds of officials to be included on the visa blacklist.

Still, he praised the EU visa ban and said he hoped it will encourage Russia to drop its support for Lukashenko's government, which he said would collapse without Moscow's backing.

Source:

http://www.localnewsleader.com/brocktown/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=173655