BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

09/11/2006

Belarus refuses to give visas for Germany-sponsored conference

Minsk- Belarus' government on Thursday refused to give visas to German dignitaries planning to attend a conference in the former Soviet republic, in retaliation for European travel bans on Belarusian officials. "We have been obliged to take this step as a symmetric reaction to limitations placed on our country by the European Union, the US, and other countries," said Andrei Popov, Belarus Foreign Ministry spokesman, according to an Interfax news agency report.

Affected were members of a German delegation planning to participate in an annual forum on Belarus-related issues. The conference, called the Ninth Minsk Forum, was scheduled to begin work on Thursday evening.

Roland Pofalla, General Secretary of Germany's CDU political party, was tapped to open the three-day conference, which was to have been attended by politicians, academics, and journalists.

"The most sensible strategy (for dealing with an authoritarian regime such as Belarus) is always to ask clear questions about human rights, democracy, and the rule of law," Pofalla said shortly before departure.

It was not immediately clear on late Thursday afternoon whether Pofalla or any other German official had in fact been allowed into Belarus, or if the conference would indeed to take place.

Popov made the Belarusian government's intention clear. "We won't let them in," he said.

The last conference allowing direct contact between Belarusian and western officials was in March.

Members of the European Parliament would not be allowed into the country to attend the conference, but if they wanted to discuss other issues with the Belarusian government sometime in the future "their visas would be considered under normal terms," Popov said.

The Belarusian visa decision was in retaliation for bans enacted in recent months by western nations on trips abroad by authoritarian President Aleksander Lukashenko, and other senior Belarusian officials.

The EU and the US initiated the travel bans in March after Lukashenko won a technically unconstitutional third term in office in an election widely criticised as rigged by international vote monitors.

Lukshenko unleashed para-military police to break up anti- government protests in the wake of the March poll, and slapped on opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin a five-and-a-half year jail term for his part in the marches.

Source:

http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Belarus_refuses_to_give_visas_for_G_11092006.html