The United States is continuing to pressure the leadership in Belarus for its human rights abuses by leveling sanctions against two state-owned enterprises and placing visa restrictions on 14 people involved in trying to stem the tide of democracy in the country.
"We continue to promote accountability for the Lukashenka regime's human rights abuses and complicity in Putin's war," Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated in a March 24 Twitter post. "I announced 14 regime officials for visa restrictions. @USTreasury sanctioned 12 persons and identified Lukashenka's aircraft as blocked property."
Blinken stated in a State Department news release that the measures were taken against Belarus President Alexander Lukashenka's government and its supporters for "violence surrounding the fraudulent August 2020 presidential election in Belarus, its ongoing brutal crackdown against the pro-democracy movement and other elements of Belarusian society, its flagrant human rights abuses, and its facilitation of the Russian Federation’s illegal war against Ukraine."
The U.S. Department of Treasury has designated the Open Joint Stock Company Belarusian Automobile Plant and the Open Joint Stock Company Minsk Automobile Plant, the news release reports. Treasury also is redesignating the Central Election Commission of Belarus and seven members of the commission, according to the release.
The State Department has placed visa restrict on 14 people "for their involvement in undermining democracy in Belarus," Blinken states in the news release.
"Specifically, these individuals include regime officials involved in policies to threaten and intimidate brave Belarusians exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms at great personal cost," Blinken states.
The State Department in February imposed visa restrictions on Belarusian individuals responsible for undermining democracy. The individuals included high-ranking officials from the justice sector, law enforcement, and academic administration who had detained and abused peaceful demonstrators, sentenced peaceful protesters and journalists to prison terms and threatened students participating in peaceful protests, the February news release reports.
Blinken stated U.S. actions are in accordance with measures taken by "our partners and Allies."
"The United States will continue to impose costs on the regime and those who support it for their repression of the people of Belarus," Blinken stated in the March 24 release, "and the regime’s ongoing support for Russia’s unprovoked and illegal war against Ukraine."
