The European Union has agreed to impose sanctions on Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and other leaders over a presidential election it condemned as flawed.
The 25 EU leaders also deplored overnight police action to break up peaceful demonstrations in Minsk against the conduct of the poll and demanded the release of some 200 protesters who were detained.
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| Opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich in Minsk last night |
"The European Council has decided to take restrictive measures against those responsible for the violations of international electoral standards including President Lukashenko," Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik told a news conference after an EU summit.
She said measures being considered included visa bans on those accused of allegedly rigging the poll.
EU officials said asset freezes against individuals were also under consideration but not economic sanctions against the former Soviet republic.
The protests, unprecedented in the tightly controlled former Soviet state and a challenge to Mr Lukashenko, began on Sunday to press charges by opposition leaders that last weekend's elections were rigged.
"The authorities . . . only know the language of force," main opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich told reporters. The opposition, due to hold an emergency meeting this morning, vowed a planned rally tomorrow would go ahead.
Dozens of police wearing riot helmets and carrying batons surrounded the protesters in their makeshift tent camp in the capital's October Square, loaded them on to trucks and drove them to a pre-trial detention centre.
Mr Lukashenko (51) won Sunday's elections with an official vote tally of 83 per cent. Mr Milinkevich came second with 6 per cent.
In the draft statement, the EU said Belarus was "a sad exception" to Europe's tradition of democracy. "The European Council is therefore determined to take restrictive measures against those politically and administratively responsible for the violations of international electoral standards," it added, without giving details.
Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said the EU needed to talk to Russia, Belarus's closest ally, before deciding on sanctions. Any action would target the leadership and not the people of Belarus, he said.
Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Denmark launched a joint initiative to have the summit take action on Belarus.
Despite becoming a pariah in the West, however, Mr Lukashenko is genuinely popular among the ten million Belarussians for having ensured relative political and economic stability.
He said his victory marked the failure of an opposition bid to mount a pro-Western coup in Belarus, which borders European Union members Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. Russia is to the east and is Belarus's main trading partner.
The election result has set the United States and other Western countries at odds with Russia. Washington, echoing the findings of international poll monitors, has accused Mr Lukashenko of intimidating opponents; Moscow has congratulated him.
Belarussian officials have dismissed complaints over the conduct of the elections and endorsed the results.