BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

08/01/2007

Belarus opposition leader accuses traffic cops of harassment

Minsk - The leader of the Belarusian opposition accused the national traffic police of systematically harassing him during a campaign trip, the Belapan news agency reported Monday.

Highway cops stopped a vehicle carrying Aleksander Milinkevich, a former physics professor, six times over the weekend on a variety of pretexts.

Possible charges aside from routine identification paper checks included travelling while intoxicated, the vehicle's alleged involvement in a past traffic accident and not wearing a seat belt. Milinkevich was a passenger.

The stops lasted from a few minutes to several hours including side trips to the local police station.

As a result, Milinkevich repeatedly arrived late or failed to show at pro-democracy campaign rallies scheduled on Saturday and Sunday in Belarus' central Gomel region.

Milinkevich accused the Belarusian government of 'fearing even the smallest discussion' of issues facing Belarusian voters, and of trying to prevent him from publicly supporting opposition candidates in the run-up to the provincial poll.

'A government that lives in fear, cannot live forever,' he said.

Other official harassment reportedly included police refusal to admit Milinkevich into a convention hall with voters in the town Mozyr on Sunday, on grounds he arrived too late.

Police also attempted to ban a meeting between Milinkevich and Mozyr citizens after the hall's doors were opened, and threatened people speaking with Milinkevich with possible charges of violating public assembly law.

Some 200 people defied police instructions to speak with Milinkevich under heavy rain, according to the report.

Belarus' authoritarian President Aleksander Lukashenko enjoys the support of a majority of Belarusians, in no small part due to his government's near-total control over media, and a state policy of keeping opposition figures out of the public eye.

Lukashenko defeated Milinkevich in a March presidential election criticized by international monitor groups as badly flawed.

Milinkevich's supporters demonstrated against the result for slightly more than a week, until Belarusian police used force to break up the protests.

2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Source:

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1240879.php/Belarus_opposition_leader_accuses_traffic_cops_of_harassment