EU slaps visa ban on Belarussian leader over ‘rigged’ election

THE European Union told Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko yesterday that he was unwelcome in the 25-nation bloc after his re-election last month in a vote observers said was rigged.

It also imposed a visa ban on 30 other top officials in Belarus seen as having a hand in the government’s election campaign crackdown on the opposition.

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

Belarus said it would place a visa ban of its own on EU and US officials. In a statement, the foreign ministry in Minsk called EU and US criticism of Mr Lukashenko “uncivilised... shortsighted and ineffective.”

It did not say which officials would be banned.

The visa ban marked the first time the EU has prohibited the head of state of a neighbouring nation from visiting the union.

It has taken the same steps against the leaders of Zimbabwe and Burma.

The EU foreign ministers, in a statement after a meeting, urged Mr Lukashenko “not to penalise or discriminate against those exercising their right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, including the leaders of the opposition parties”.

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”.

She said the EU also agreed to sponsor independent media broadcasts into Belarus from neighbouring nations such as EU member Poland to offset Lukashenko propaganda.

The EU said Mr 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”.

Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said the move “sends a strong message” that the EU is targeting the Belarus leadership, not its people.

“We want to keep the people of Belarus on our side, so we will try to cultivate relations with people of the opposition,” he said.

Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Swoboda said he wanted more Belarus officials on the list.

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

Mr Swoboda added that the EU ban should have included more officials from the state TV and radio broadcaster, which ensures there are no opposition media broadcasts.

Besides Mr 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.

Mr Lukashenko won 83% of the vote and a third consecutive term according to the official results of last month’s elections, declared by the EU and the United States to be undemocratic and fraudulent.

Opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich won 6.1% of the vote. Mr Milinkevich 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 Mr Lukashenko’s government, which he said would collapse without Moscow.