EU awards human rights prize to Belarus opposition

The European Union on Thursday awarded its top human rights prize to the Belarus opposition movement and its leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya for their challenge to President Alexander Lukashenko's long hard-line reign.

Tsikhanouskaya shares the prize with several leading members of the opposition’s Coordination Council, which was created after the election in a bid to facilitate talks on a transition of power following the 9 August presidential elections widely seen as rigged.

They include Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich, musician Maryia Kalesnikava and political activists Volha Kavalkova and Veranika Tsapkala and prominent opposition politician Mikola Statkevich, who was recently jailed.

The 27-nation EU agreed this month to impose sanctions against officials suspected of election misconduct and a brutal security crackdown on protesters in Belarus and warned it is ready to sanction Lukashenko himself if he fails to enter into talks with the opposition and order an end to the repression launched after a disputed election.

Since the polls, which handed Lukashenko a victory with 80% of the vote, mass protests have rocked the ex-Soviet nation sandwiched between Poland and Russia.

Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenko's main challenger, got 10%. of the vote.

She and her supporters refused to recognize the results, saying the outcome of the vote was manipulated.

A 38-year old former English teacher with no previous political experience, Tsikhanouskaya joined the race after her husband who aspired to run for president was jailed.

He has remained in prison.

Tsikhanouskaya has rejected the official tally and refused to concede defeat, but was forced to move to Lithuania under pressure from authorities.

The prize will be presented in a ceremony in Strasbourg, France on Dec. 16.