English

NGOs, activists call for EU's broader sanctions against Belarusian individuals

A number of NGOs and activists, including former presidential candidate Andrey Sannikaw, have urged all 28 European Union foreign ministers to back a broadening of sanctions against Belarusian individuals and companies, according to the UK's newspaper The Guardian. 

A letter and a policy paper calling for broader sanctions have already been delivered to the ministers.

The policy paper outlines a number of businessmen who are said to have close links with Alyaksandr Lukashenka but who are not currently subject to the 28-nation bloc's sanctions. It identifies Belarusian oligarchs whose businesses, it says, would be impossible without the "permission and deep involvement" of the regime. One, Yury Chyzh, is already present on the sanctions list, but three of his profitable firms were "left off last year after lobbying from Latvia," according to The Guardian.

The activists demand that these companies, as well as firms belonging to businessmen Mikalay Varabey and Alyaksandr Shakutsin are also included on the sanctions list.

The policy paper also demands that sanctions are extended to cover state-controlled oil and potash export companies, and also warns that some Belarusian companies have been re-registered in Latvia in an attempt to avoid EU sanctions.

Mr. Sannikaw, a former political prisoner granted asylum in the UK, personally handed the letter to the UK minister for Europe, David Lidington, earlier this week, and asked him to pass it on to the UK foreign secretary, William Hague.

In response to the claims, the UK Foreign Office said: "We continue to be very clear with the Belarusian government in public and in private." "All EU member states agree that there can be no change in the EU's position, including sanctions, until we see the immediate release and rehabilitation of the [seven] remaining political prisoners. Absent any positive change in Belarus, sanctions will be rolled over in October," the paper quoted the Foreign Office as saying.

The news website charter97.org said that the letter had been signed by an opposition group called European Belarus, Sweden's Ostgruppen, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Slovakia's AdHoc, the Czech Republic's People in Need, Open Estonia Foundation, Libereco – Partnership for Human rights, and Finnish-based Finnish-Russian Civic Forum.

On October 31, the European Union's restrictive measures against a large group of Belarusian individuals are due to expire. The EU foreign ministers are to decide by that date whether to lift or prolong them.

As many as 241 Belarusian citizens, including Alyaksandr Lukashenka, are currently subject to travel bans and 242 persons plus 30 business entities are subject to asset freezes within the EU.

When reached by BelaPAN, Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for Catherine Ashton, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said that the Belarus issue had not been put on the agenda of the EU foreign ministers' October 21 meeting in Luxembourg. However, she added, the foreign ministers may make a decision on the matter through written procedures at any time.