Lithuania’s parliament on Tuesday voted for economic sanctions against Belarus, saying the presidential election there mustn’t be internationally recognized.
Lawmakers approved the sanctions on a 120-0 vote. “We are sending a strong message to the world today”, foreign minister Linas Linkevicius said after the vote.
The document also calls for an international rejection of the legitimacy of Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko’s reelection. Lukashenko, who has led the country since 1994, won a landslide victory in the August 9 election. The vote, which triggered mass protests, was denounced by EU officials. The opposition says that Lukashenko’s main challenger, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, was the rightful winner and wants new elections.
“What happened there is not just a human rights abuse, but also crimes that must be investigated and those responsible punished”, Linkevicius said.
According to election officials, Tsikhanouskaya, got only 10% of the vote. She denounced the vote as rigged and demanded a recount before leaving Belarus last week. Lithuania, which is Belarus’s neighbor, gave her refuge.
