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Human right groups to recommend that EU should not lift its sanctions against Belarusian officials

Belarus’ human right groups will recommend that the European Union should not lift its visa sanctions against Belarusian officials, human rights activists told reporters in Minsk on Friday while unveiling a report on their monitoring of the human rights situation in the country in the period between November 2008 and September 2010, as quoted by BelaPAN.

As Aleh Hulak, leader of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee said, since there have been no major changes for the better, the EU will be recommended not to lift the sanctions; to extend the suspension of the sanctions by six months; to devise a tool that would make the system of sanctions more efficient; to issue a report that would assess the efficiency of the EU’s policy regarding Belarus since the bloc began a dialogue with Minsk; and to take the human rights situation in the country into consideration while making decisions on economic cooperation with Belarus.

The EU imposed an entry ban on Alyaksandr Lukashenka and many other Belarusian officials following the March 2006 presidential election over alleged violations of international election standards and crackdowns on post-election protests.

The 27-nation bloc later suspended its travel sanctions against a total of 36 Belarusian officials and left them in place for five, including Lidziya Yarmoshyna, head of the central election commission, and four persons suspected of involvement in the 1999-2000 disappearances of Mr. Lukashenka’s opponents. The four were: former Interior Ministers Uladzimir Navumaw and Yury Sivakow, former Prosecutor General Viktar Sheyman, and Dzmitry Pawlichenka, a former commander of an Interior Troops unit.

In October, the EU is to consider whether to lift the sanctions, extend the suspension or take other action.