EU-ambassadeurs keren terug naar Wit-Rusland (en)

BRUSSELS - EU ambassadors are to return en bloc to their posts in Belarus shortly after the Easter break, unless President Alexander Lukashenko does something drastic in the meantime.

EU diplomatic sources say the decision was made behind closed doors in Brussels earlier this week.

"Inshallah. I do not have my instructions yet, but I expect to get them on Monday (2 April)," the Belarus ambassador of one EU country told this website.

The EU envoys quit Belarus in February in an act of solidarity with the EU envoy and the Polish envoy in Minsk, who were kicked out by Lukashenko in protest at EU sanctions.

Quite a bit has happened in Belarus-EU relations over the past month and not much of it is positive.

The EU has imposed more sanctions, including on a personal friend of Lukashenko (but they let one of his key firms off the list). Lukashenko executed two young men he calls "terrorists" but everyone else calls innocent and he created a list of some 150 dissidents who are not allowed to leave the country.

"This [the EU envoys' return] will happen if the Belarusians behave correctly. Of course, this raises the question what is 'correctly'? But normally, this should happen," another EU diplomat said.

Lukashenko made good on his blacklist on Wednesday by stopping three dissidents - Alyaksandr Atroshchankau, Syarhei Kalyakin and Anatol Lyabedzka - from going to a symposium with EU neighbourhood commission Stefan Fuele in Brussels.

One Belarusian activist told this website the Fuele event was in result full of pro-Lukashenko "lobbyists" only. But it was not enough to stall the EU ambassadors' return.

If something more serious happens - for instance, the death of hunger striker Syarhey Kavalenka - the ambassador plan could go in the bin, however.

The EU diplomat quoted above said the ambassadors' potential return should not be seen as a political gift: "We are ready to impose more sanctions if the situation does not improve."

A third EU diplomat said: "It helps us to work more effectively in Belarus, to have better quality reporting, if the ambassadors are there."