EU extends Belarus sanctions, delays Uzbek review

BRUSSELS, Mar 1 (Reuters) European Union states have agreed to extend sanctions on Belarus for another year and to delay a review of restrictions on Uzbekistan until May, officials today said.

The delay in the Uzbek review, which had been scheduled this month, should be rubber-stamped by foreign ministers of the 27 EU states on Monday, while the extension of Belarus sanctions will be formalised at the end of this month, the officials said.

The EU imposed visa bans and asset freezes on more than 30 Belarussian officials, including President Alexander Lukashenko, over the latter's re-election in polls last March which it denounced as blatantly rigged.

It restricted military sales, banned visas for 12 top Uzbek officials and partially suspended bilateral dialogue in November 2005 after accusing Uzbekistan of using indiscriminate force to quash a revolt in the town of Andizhan in May 2005.

EU governments extended the sanctions on Uzbekistan for six months last November but agreed then to review them after three months.

Maisy Weicherding, a Central Asia expert at human rights group Amnesty International, termed the decision to delay that review positive.

But she expressed concern that EU president Germany was still placing too much emphasis on improving energy ties with Uzbekistan rather than on human rights in a strategy it is drawing up to boost EU ties with Central Asia.

''We felt human rights didn't really figure in a draft political strategy we have seen,'' she said. ''We feel they are an integral part as governments in the region, especially Uzbekistan, have been using very repressive policies.'' Witnesses say hundreds of people were killed on May 13, 2005, among them women and children, when troops opened fire on a protest in Andizhan. Uzbekistan blamed the riot on Islamist extremists and said most of the dead were armed insurgents.

REUTERS SY BST2205