BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/03/2006

Belarus President vowed to crash opponents with the help of the secret police

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, facing the prospect of mass protests after this weekend's election, vowed that his opponents would not be able to seize power. "I guarantee that an overthrow of the government in our country will not take place. There will not be a forceful seizure of institutions or the blocking of squares and streets", Lukashenko said Friday in a nationally televised address to the country, Reuters reported. "Today everything is being done to prevent even the smallest threat to the security of the people". Lukashenko vowed swift action against any foreigner trying to sow chaos. "God forbid one of them should try to do something in our country. We will twist his head off immediately, like a duckling's", Lukashenko said in comments shown on state TV news. The statement followed an array of allegations that plans to forcefully unseat Lukashenko, who is running for a third term, have been discovered. Many of the allegations involve Georgians, whose country's "Rose Revolution" of 2003 inspired later protests in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Nine Georgian lawmakers who were to join an international elections monitoring mission were detained at the Belarus capital's airport by the local KGB and sent back to Georgia. Also Friday, the Belarus KGB said it had arrested a Georgian citizen on suspicion of funding the opposition. He was detained "in the interests of the state", KGB spokesman Valery Nadtochayev said. Responding to a warning from Belarus' foreign minister that the opposition and its foreign supporters would bear responsibility for any election violence, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said any violence against peaceful protests "would meet with a strong international reaction".

The KGB of Belarus also has informed the Central Electoral Commission on a fake concerning the alleged outcome of March 19 presidential election, Itar tass reported. "The document, ostensibly signed by CEC chairwoman Lydia Yermoshina, and allegedly were to be sent to the Ukrainian office of the U.S. National Democratic Institute, contained combined data on the outcome of March 19 voting with a specific breakdown of votes", said Nikolai Lozovik, CEC chairman. According to the breakdown, the unified opposition candidate Alexander Milinkiewicz would receive 51% votes, President Alexander Lukashenko, 37%, and another opposition candidate, Alexander Kozulin, 7.8%. "The Central Electoral Commission has nothing to do with that fake", Lozovik said. He indicated that the KGB had obtained the document as part of investigation of a case over activity of Partnyorstvo (Partnership) non-governmental organization. Belarus opposition leader scondemned this "authority's trick" called to blacken their image.

Source:

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=741