BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/04/2006

EU places visa ban on Lukashenko and 30 others

By: Ahto Lobjakas, 18. 04. 2006

EU foreign ministers imposed a visa ban on 31 top Belarusian officials considered responsible for the conduct of the country's March 19 presidential poll, which the EU condemned as neither free nor fair.

The number of those targeted by the EU falls short of what the Belarusian opposition and its more enthusiastic supporters within the EU had hoped for. However, EU officials made clear that new names can be added to the list and that further sanctions haven't been ruled out. For its part, Belarus has announced it will ban some officials from the EU and the United States.

President Aleksandr Lukashenko was sworn in April 8 for a third term in office. In his inauguration speech, he praised the people of Belarus for rejecting the kind of opposition movements that were successful in Georgia and Ukraine.

The EU decision underscores the hope among the mainstream of the EU's member states that it's possible simultaneously to get tough with the regime of Lukashenko - and still keep some lines of communication open.

Ursula Plassnik, foreign minister of the current EU chair Austria, announced the decision April 10, confirming the EU had decided to limit itself to targeting only a few dozen Belarusian leaders. "Today, we have decided to impose a visa ban against members of the Belarus leadership responsible for violation of the international electoral standards during the presidential elections, and [those] responsible as well for the crackdown on civil society and democratic opposition," she said.

Not everyone is satisfied

The fact that the list of 31 officials is headed by Lukashenko represents the EU's intention to make it clear that its patience with the Belarusian regime has run out.

Among the 31, there are three prominent members of the presidential administration, three ministers (but not the foreign minister), the head of the country's secret police, a number of judges, and the heads of local electoral commissions.

The length of the list was proposed last week by EU ambassadors in Brussels, and marked a victory for those EU states that advocated a more cautious approach regarding Belarus. However, it was clear there were divisions among the foreign ministers making the decision. Cyril Svoboda, the Czech foreign minister and one of the spokesmen within the EU for a tough line against Minsk, was visibly disappointed. He told journalists on the sidelines of the April 10 meeting that he wasn't "completely satisfied" with the list.

"We did agree all, we did agree on the measures we imposed today," Svoboda said. "But I'm repeating again that I'm not completely satisfied because the ban list is very short and, in my view, we need to put some other people on the ban list."

In particular, Svoboda said the EU should target many prominent figures working for the state-run television and radio establishment.

Svoboda accuses them of "deforming democracy in Belarus," but the visa blacklist features only Aleksandr Zimouski, head of the National State Television and Radio Company.

Svoboda's sentiments also broadly reflect those of Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, and some others. The length of the list was proposed last week by EU ambassadors in Brussels, and marked a victory for those EU states that advocated a more cautious approach regarding Belarus.

Svoboda first urged for sanctions immediately after the elections at a meeting of EU foreign ministers March 24. At that meeting, the ministers agreed that there would be "restrictive measures" against those responsible for the alleged election violations, but the exact details weren't worked out at that time. Czech President Vaclav Klaus and former President Vaclav Havel have both condemned the election, and the Czech government has earmarked Kc 20 million (E 699,500) to help Belarusian dissident groups.

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, who supported the April 10 decision, explained the reasoning behind it. He said it sends a message while leaving the door open for future discussion.

"[It reflects] possibly a certain conservativeness on the one hand and on the other a calculation that in order to change things in Belarus for the better, communication remains necessary," Paet said. "To impose a complete ban on movement would make it hard to take [the EU's] message equally well to governmental circles."

More names could come

But the EU also says in an accompanying statement that the blacklist will be under constant review - meaning it could be expanded. The statement also makes it plain that the EU's main concern currently lies with what it calls "political detainees" - the many opposition activists and their supporters arrested in the course of the manifestations that followed the elections. The clear assumption is that the length of the visa-ban list depends on what the regime in Minsk will do next.

However, EU officials and diplomats admit privately that for a number of the bloc's member states, their reaction to events in Belarus is partly shaped by a wish not to complicate relations with Russia.

Among the 31, there are three prominent members of the presidential administration, three ministers, the head of the country's secret police, a number of judges, and the heads of local electoral commissions. The limelight afforded to opposition leader Aleksandr Milinkevich is widely held to constitute an important litmus test of how far the EU is willing to go in actively undermining Lukashenko's regime. Milinkevich wasn't invited to attend the April 10 foreign ministers' meeting, as he was in February.

The lack of an invitation this time is something Svoboda openly noted afterward.

"Yesterday [April 9] Mr. Milinkevich called me and he said that he was slightly disappointed not to be present today in Luxembourg, because he wanted to sit at the very same table with us, and to discuss the situation in Belarus," Svoboda said.

The foreign ministers also didn't heed calls by the European Parliament to declare Lukashenko's presidential victory illegal and to demand new elections.

This is an edited version of a story published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Source:

http://www.cbw.cz/phprs/2006041821.html