BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/01/2008

Three thousand small businessmen protest in Belarus capital

Minsk - More than 3,000 retail traders and stall operators marched in the Belarusian capital on Thursday to protest a recent hike in taxes, the Belapan news agency reported.

The column of marchers participating in the unsanctioned demonstration gathered at the centrally-located Oktiabr Square, and then moved out into a main Minsk thoroughfare blocking traffic.

The marchers' goal, according to organizers, was Belarus' main administrative building, the House of Government.

Aleksander Lukashenko, Belarus' authoritarian president, ordered substantial hikes in small business taxes effective 2008. One of his offices is in the House of Government, a frequent focus for demonstrations against his regime.

Protestors chanted, 'Give us work!' and 'Freedom!'

The demonstration was not sanctioned by Lukashenko, who has routinely used uniformed and secret police to break up similar marches in the past.

The businessmen and women called for a repeal of Lukashenko's tax hikes, considered by most Belarusian small traders as impossible to comply with and make a profit.

Police presence was moderate until the column reached the side road leading up to the House of Government building, where marchers encountered a formation of anti-riot police.

The demonstrators did not come into contact with the police cordon and, during a 20-minute stand off, law enforcers did not move against the protestors.

The marchers moved away from the police line without incident. Police vans followed the demonstrators, calling on them to leave the street as they were interfering with automobile traffic.

The protest was a rare case of open anti-government demonstration in Belarus, considered by some regional observers to be Europe's last dictatorship.

Lukashenko has said his government tolerates private enterprise but must regulate it closely to prevent the rise of organized crime and tycoon-controlled politics seen in neighbouring Russia and Ukraine.

Demonstrators accused the Lukashenko government of torquing down on small business, order to prevent it from competing with favoured state-owned companies.

The new tax law among other changes makes illegal for a small business to employ more than three people, and even then the employees must be directly related to the business owner.

There are more than 200,000 registered small businessmen in Belarus. For practical purposes, they are the only Belarusians whose livelihood does not depend on a government company controlled by Lukashenko.

2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Source:

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1385888.php/Three_thousand_small_businessmen_protest_in_Belarus_capital

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