Belarus orders closure of OSCE office in Minsk

Belarus yesterday ordered the closure of the office of the OSCE in Minsk, in an apparent response to the transatlantic security group’s stinging criticism of its presidential polls. The move came as Belarus still holds hundreds of opposition supporters arrested in the mass protest against the December 19 polls swept by President Alexander Lukashenko in a crackdown decried by the West.

“The Belarussian side has taken the decision not to prolong the mandate of the OSCE office in Minsk,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Savinykh said in a statement.

“It needs to be said that this is a conscious decision caused by the lack of objective reasons for retaining an OSCE mission in Belarus,” he added.

“This position has been stated for a number of years in official announcements by the Belarussian side.”

Giving the rationale for the closure, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said only that the office’s mandate “had been fulfilled”.

But the move comes after monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said after the polls that Belarus is still “a considerable way” from holding democratic elections.

OSCE monitors issued a damning report on the presidential polls that listed a litany of vote count violations, saying its observers assessed the tally “as bad and very bad” in almost half of all observed polling stations.