BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

14/02/2007

Demonstrators Detained in Belarus Rally

The Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus -- Plainclothes agents broke up a Valentine's Day march by opposition activists expressing pro-European views, detaining about 10 people in the capital of the tightly controlled ex-Soviet republic of Belarus.

About 200 members of the opposition Young Front marched through Minsk, carrying EU and EU national flags, handing out souvenirs reading, "I love Europe, I love Belarus," and calling for the release of opponents of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

After the demonstrators visited the French Embassy, where they presented a statement condemning government "repression" and advocating closer ties with Europe, agents in civilian clothes grabbed people at the head of the column of marchers, twisting their arms behind their backs and leading them away.

Officials at a police precinct house where the activists were taken declined to comment.

"I overcame my fear in order to say that Belarus' place is in Europe, and not in a dictatorship," said Katerina Galkhitskaya, a student who participated in the march wearing a white angel costume with silver wings.

Authorities had not granted permission for the annual Valentine's Day march, and unauthorized demonstrations in Belarus are almost invariably broken up by police or security agents.

Lukashenko has been dubbed Europe's last dictator by Western governments that have banned him from entering their territory because of his suppression of dissent in the nation of 10 million, where he has held on to power since 1994 through elections dismissed by the U.S. and European countries as illegitimate.

Source:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/14/AR2007021401172.html