EU foreign ministers will meet on Friday to discuss targeted sanctions against Belarus following Sunday’s contested election and subsequent violent crackdown down on protesters, Sweden’s top diplomat said on Wednesday.
FOREIGN MINISTERS ARE DUE TO NEXT MEET AT THE END OF AUGUST
Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, claimed victory with around 80% of the vote, triggering three nights of violent clashes between security forces and opposition supporters in which one protester was killed.
“I absolutely think we need to consider broadening targeted sanctions against those responsible for the violence against the protesters (and) for the election fraud – those involved in the electoral process not having turned out free and fair,” Linde told Swedish radio on Wednesday.
“This morning there has been a summons to an extraordinary EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Friday where we will discuss precisely this (sanctions),” she told the public broadcaster.
As seen in the cases of Russia or Ukraine, such decisions can take weeks or months. Foreign ministers are due to next meet at the end of August in Berlin.
On Tuesday, Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said she had fled abroad for the sake of her children.
Her election rallies drew some of the biggest crowds since the fall of the Soviet Union in a country where foreign observers have not judged a single election to be free and fair since 1995.