US Reiterates Warnings to Belarus, Others Express Dismay
16 March 2006

After giving numerous accounts of repression of the opposition candidates in the lead up to the March 19, 2006 election, the United States, in solidarity with the EU, threatened "readiness to take further restrictive measures against the responsible individuals” unless Belarus ensures fair and free elections. 

In a March 13 interview, Javier Solana, former NATO Secretary General and current EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, remarked that “the EU does not wish to isolate Belarus. It is [President] Lukashenko who is isolating the country. The EU remains open to dialogue and has clearly set out the steps Belarus authorities need to take to normalize relations. Respect for democracy and the rule of law is a basic pre-condition for such a process to start.”

In an Op-Ed in the March 13 Washington Post, Slovak Republic Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda expressed dismay at the “tightening control of the media, imprisonment of civic activists and gross intimidation of the opposition, culminating in the beating of an opposition candidate.”  He lamented that “the people of Belarus are likely to be denied is the most fundamental of human rights: the right to political choice.”  The Prime Minister claimed Slovak solidarity with the people of Belarus, and noted that “just as orange scarves and jackets began to fill the streets of Kiev, Ukraine, last winter, blue denim has become the fashion in the streets of Belarus.”