BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/11/2006

Belarus retaliates for travel ban

BERLIN, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Belarus retaliated to an international travel ban on its politicians by refusing to grant visas to a group of German politicians and journalists.

Two lawmakers and two journalists were denied entry to the former Soviet republic in retaliation for international 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 United States, and other countries," Russian news agency Interfax quoted Andrei Popov, a Belarus Foreign Ministry spokesman, as saying.

The Germans planned to attend a forum on Belarus-related issues in Minsk but had their visas revoked, while other politicians were let in.

"This is again a clear sign that Lukashenko's system seals itself off from any kind of critical dialogue," German lawmaker Marieluise Beck, who was denied entry, said according to Deutsche Welle Online. "This almost brings us back to Stalinist times."

The international community adopted travel bans against top Belarusian government officials after authoritarian President Aleksander Lukashenko was proclaimed the winner of an election that international observers said was rigged.

Source:

http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20061110-114001-4614r