BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

13/10/2008

European Union Lifts Travel Ban On Belarusian Officials

(RTTNews) - The European Union has temporarily suspended its travel ban on Belarusian government officials, including President Alexander Lukashenko, said officials on Monday.

The officials said that the travel ban on Belarusian officials has been suspended for six months and added that the move was an attempt to encourage democratic reform in the former Soviet republic.

However, they said that the suspension would not apply to those involved in the disappearance of political prisoners and added that the bank deposits of Belarusian officials will remain frozen.

"We want to show that progress is being rewarded," said the EU's External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, adding that the EU should not "forego a possibility to have political leverage."

The EU decision to lift the travel ban comes after Belarus released several political prisoners in August and refused to support Russia in its recognition of the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Also on Monday, the EU ministers lifted most of the bloc's existing sanctions on the authoritarian regime of Uzbekistan. They, however, retained the arms embargo against the oil rich former Soviet republic.

by RTT Staff Writer

Source:

http://www.rttnews.com/ArticleView.aspx?Id=739462&SMap=1

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