US hits Belarusian officials with travel bans for crackdown
According to ALJAZEERA, The United States on Thursday imposed travel restrictions on 43 Belarusian nationals identified as taking part in President Alexander Lukashenko’s “crackdown” on protesters and journalists.
The US action was announced by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement that followed the sentencing Thursday of two journalists who had livestreamed an enormous protest in Minsk in November.
Katsiaryna Bakhvalava, age 27, and Daria Chultsova, 23, both of the Polish-funded Belsat TV channel were sentenced to two years in prison covering the protest.
The State Department also noted raids by Belarusian authorities on February 16 on Vyasna, an association of journalists, and on independent trade union workers.
Blinken’s statement said the US “remains alarmed by the Lukashenka regime’s continuing violent crackdown on peaceful protesters, pro-democracy activists, and journalists”.
The sanctions restricting travel to the US apply to “high-ranking justice sector officials, law enforcement leaders and rank-and-file personnel who detained and abused peaceful demonstrators”, Blinken’s statement said.
In addition, judges and prosecutors involved in sentencing protesters and journalists, as well as academic administrators who threatened students for participation in protests were also sanctioned.
More than 33,000 people have been detained in a violent crackdown on protests against Lukashenko’s rule following a contested election last August that his opponents have said was rigged to extend his rule, according to the Reuters news service.
The crackdown has prompted Western countries to impose new sanctions on Minsk. Lukashenko has refused to step down, buttressed by support from Moscow, which sees Belarus as a buffer state against the European Union and NATO.
Previously, Washington had expanded sanctions on Belarus, targeting four entities and 40 individuals for their roles in the disputed presidential election and the government’s subsequent arrests of protesters.
