Germany summons Belarus ambassador over visa denials

(BERLIN) - Germany said it had summoned the Belarussian ambassador on Thursday after the isolated country denied visas to two observers, one of them German, who planned to monitor upcoming parliamentary polls.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle had ordered the summoning of Belarus' envoy to Berlin, who was told the German government did not understand the visa denials, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.

On Wednesday, Europe's OSCE security and rights body said two of its observers -- parliament members from Germany and Lithuania -- for Sunday's elections in Belarus had been refused visas.

Germany's special representative for Eastern Europe Antje Leendertse had made clear to Belarussian ambassador Andrei Giro "that the federal government has no understanding at all of electoral observers... and journalists being refused visas" ahead of the polls, the spokeswoman said in a statement.

"Constraints on press freedom, entry denials and hindrances to civil society are already a potential negative sign in the run-up to the election and a further set back to social development in Belarus," she added.

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe spokesman Parliamentary Assembly spokesman Neil Simon named the two banned observers on Wednesday as Marieluise Beck from Germany and Emanuelis Zingeris from Lithuania.

Belarus has become increasingly isolated from Europe since the crackdown on dissent after the controversial 2010 presidential election, which handed President Alexander Lukashenko a historic fourth term.

The European Union responded with economic sanctions and issued travel bans against nearly 250 people in the Belarussian government and court system.