BELARUS: The European Union has agreed to ban two senior Belarus officials from its territory as part of sanctions against the former Soviet republic for staging flawed elections.
They are Ms Lidia Yarmoshyna, head of the Central Electoral Commission, and Mr Yuri Podbed, chief of the OMON security force that broke up rallies following the October 17th general election and a referendum on President Alexander Lukashenko.
EU foreign ministers agreed in November on sanctions against the Belarus authorities involving travel bans on officials and freezing high-level links between member-states and Minsk.
"The list of those to be embraced by the visa ban has just been agreed. It includes the OMON chief and the elections commission head," an EU diplomat said.
International observers have branded as flawed Belarus elections and the referendum that scrapped a rule limiting Mr Lukashenko to two terms.
The EU banned four other top officials in September, protesting over the disappearances of three politicians and a journalist in 1999 and 2000. - (Reuters)