EU VISA BAN IMMEDIATELY EFFECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MINSK 000433

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/20/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR CVIS BO
SUBJECT: EU VISA BAN IMMEDIATELY EFFECTIVE

Classified By: Classified by Ambassador George Krol for Reasons 1.4(B,D
)


1. (C) Summary: On April 10, the EU expanded its visa ban
list for Belarus from six to 37 senior GOB officials involved
in election fraud and human rights abuses. Switzerland
announced on April 12 that it would abide by the ban as well.
In the first week of existence the ban has already prevented
several of these people from traveling to EU member states.
Although not included on the ban, the French Embassy in Minsk
also denied a visa to a notorious state propagandist, Yury
Azarenok. Azarenok is expected to apply soon for a Greek
visa to head Belarus' Eurovision delegation in May. The
Latvian DCM, heading the visa ban effort in Minsk, reported
that although the ban is in theory open to expansion, in
reality it would likely take serious Belarusian human rights
abuses to get Brussels to act. He thought that if the U.S.
implemented an expanded list, for the sake of parity several
EU members may also support expansion of their list. End
summary.


The Visa Ban Hits Hard and Fast
--------------


2. (U) According to sources in several EU embassies in Minsk,
in its first week the visa ban prevented several named
individuals from traveling to EU member states. Specifically:

--Natalya Petkevich, Deputy Head of the Presidential
Administration, was denied a Czech visa;
--Nikolay Cherginets, senior parliamentarian, was denied a
Schengen visa to Belgium;
--The German Embassy is revoking Schengen visas previously
issued to Head of the Presidential Administration Gennady
Nevyglas and to Chairman of the House of Representatives
Vladimir Konoplyov.


3. (U) In addition, on April 12 the French Embassy denied a
Schengen visa for travel to Spain to Yury Azarenok (DPOB 27
February 1965 Vitebsk),notorious state television
propagandist responsible for some of the most vile
anti-American and anti-Western propaganda. Azarenok, Deputy
Chairman of the Belarusian State Radio and TV Company, is not
on the EU's visa ban list, but the French felt strongly he
should not be allowed to travel. So far Spain, his
destination country, has not protested. According to the
Belarusian press, Azarenok will head Belarus' delegation to
the May 18 to 20 Eurovision contest in Greece.


One Visa Ban Failure
--------------


4. (C) Since the visa ban went into effect, Chairman of the
Belarusian State Radio and TV Company Aleksandr Zimovsky
traveled for vacation to Cyprus. According to the British
DCM, the EU "is having words" with Nicosia over this lapse.
Belarusian independent press also announced that Vladimir
Shimov, the rector of BSEU university who expelled several
students for political reasons before the March elections,
traveled to Italy after the elections. The EU debated but
decided not to include Shimov or other university rectors on
the visa ban list.


Hard to Find Data
--------------


5. (C) Poloff met with Latvian DCM Juris Poikans on April 13
to discuss the visa ban (Latvia represents the EU President,
Austria, in Minsk). The EU still lacks dates and places of
birth (DPOB) for 12 of the 31 new additions to their list.
Poikans spoke with a number of Belarusian NGOs and
representatives of the political opposition, who said they
did not have access to such information. Poikans also
pointed out that the list Vienna publicized on April 10 had
two errors, erroneously naming two people as heads of
district election commissions. Poikans blamed one of these
errors on Vienna, which published an earlier draft of the
list, but said the second mistake was his, and typified the
difficulty in finding information in Belarus. One prominent
human rights group insisted to Poikans that a certain
individual was the head of a district election commission.
Only after the visa ban list was made public did other groups
inform him that this person was in fact the deputy. Poikans
provided the most recent, c
orrected list to Poloff. (Post faxed the list to EUR/UMB.)


MINSK 00000433 002 OF 002



Can the EU List be Expanded?
--------------


6. (C) Poikans explained that, in theory, the EU visa ban
list can be expanded. However, given the reality of the
bureaucracy in Brussels, he felt strongly that the EU would
only expand the list in reaction to future, serious human
rights violations in Belarus. Several countries, namely the
Czech Republic, Poland and Lithuania, are pushing the EU to
expand the list now. Poikans said Latvia is sympathetic to
expansion, but decided not to push the issue now. However,
he stated that if the U.S. instituted a visa ban list that
included names not on the EU list, Latvia and others would
likely use this as a vehicle to pressure Brussels to expand
its own list. Poikans claimed some EU countries, such as
Denmark, were wavering on whether to include state
journalists/propagandists on the EU list. He thought that if
such people were included on the U.S. list, this could be
enough to convince some EU states to agree to the inclusion
of these people on the EU list as well.


Belarusian Reaction to the Ban
--------------


7. (U) The GOB unsurprisingly is angry that the EU expanded
its visa ban list. Lukashenko began an April 14 press
conference by underscoring that, "We (the GOB) won't make
black lists and will not follow the way the enlightened
Europe has taken." However, he added that people who
"intentionally distort information about Belarus or work
against the country" would "naturally" be denied entry to
Belarus without any use of a visa ban. Claiming that,
"Europe has too many problems to want to create new ones,"
Lukashenko also dismissed any EU threats of economic
sanctions. For its part, the MFA announced the visa ban is
"uncivilized, short-sighted and without a future." An MFA
spokesman claimed the GOB was preparing "adequate measures"
in response, but so far no retaliation has been announced.


8. (U) Several GOB officials on the list have also spoken out
against it. MP Sergey Kostyan told the press, "So what?
They (the EU) won't give us visas. We have no money to go
there anyway and there is nothing to see there except tiled
roofs." Leonid Kozik, head of the state-controlled
Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FTUB),claimed to be
"more European than they (the EU members) are," argued the
visa ban contradicts the convention of the International
Labor Organization, and claimed he might sue the EU officials
responsible for this list in international court. (Note: the
ILO is investigating the GOB's and FTUB's abuse of
independent unions.) Central Election Commission deputy head
Nikolay Lozovik announced, apparently ignoring the irony,
"The EU infringes on the rights of election officials despite
its declared commitment to the principles of justice." MP
Nikolay Cherginets lashed out against the visa ban, and posed
the question, "If we had dictatorship, how would our
oppositionists travel abro
ad to collect their pay?"


9. (U) Opposition presidential candidate Aleksandr
Milinkevich lauded the visa ban, but claimed it should
include hundreds of additional names. Other opposition
contacts have called for the inclusion of thousands of GOB
officials. (Note: these same groups have stated they cannot
provide any of the necessary biographic information.)
Russian Ambassador to Belarus Alexander Surikov claimed the
ban, "insults the dignity of the Belarusian people," and
former Russian Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznev stated the ban
is "immoral."


Comment
--------------


10. (C) A number of GOB officials and opposition members
stated before the ban went into effect that visa bans are
empty gestures, as the named officials do not travel abroad.
The several visa refusals in the first week show the error in
this thinking. Several top regime officials have now been
personally inconvenienced for their support of Lukashenko,
his election falsification and human rights abuses. Post
believes that expanding this list, particularly the inclusion
of the most odious state "journalists," would be an effective
means to sanction Lukashenko's top supporters without hurting
the average Belarusian.
Krol