BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

27/03/2008

Belarus police raid independent broadcasters

By Andrei Makhovsky

MINSK, March 27 (Reuters) - Security police raided Belarussian broadcasters' offices and detained at least two reporters at their homes on Thursday, journalists in the former Soviet republic said.

The raids were launched two days after police broke up a rally by opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko and dozens of activists were fined or handed short jail terms.

Zhanna Litvina, head of Belarus's Journalists' Association, said the KGB security service had searched offices of two independent radio stations, Polish-funded Radio Racja (Right) and EU-backed European Radio. A journalist at television broadcaster Belsat said its premises had also been raided.

"The searches started in offices and apartments at almost exactly the same time in Minsk, Gomel, Grodno and other cities," Litvina said.

"They say the formal grounds for this is a criminal case on insulting the president. We have no detailed information, as we cannot at the moment reach most of the journalists."

Accused by the West of human rights violations, Lukashenko has called for better relations in recent months, particularly with the European Union. But he remains locked in a diplomatic row with the United States, which this month withdraw its ambassador at Belarus's request in a dispute over U.S. sanctions against Belarussian energy firm Belneftekhim.

A spokesman for Radio Racja said two reporters had been detained in Thursday's action. "KGB officers lay in ambush at apartments housing our reporters or offices and held anyone arriving there," he said.

The KGB was unavailable for immediate comment.

TIGHT CONTROL

All the broadcasters have tiny audiences in the country of 10 million where state media are subject to tight control. The small liberal and nationalist opposition said the raids and police action could quash efforts to improve foreign relations.

"This is a message to the West: the more you put pressure to us, the more pressure we will put on those calling for change in Belarus," said Anatoly Lebedko, a prominent opposition leader.

Lukashenko, quoted by state media, said Belarus had to lessen reliance on the West and on traditional ally Russia.

"Our know-it-alls (the opposition) tell us the Americans are pressing, that we will have problems with the economy," he told local officials. "Our foreign ministry also says so. If we moved in other directions, we wouldn't notice the sanctions. We must not be tied strictly to Russia, the EU and the United States."

Western sanctions remain in place -- principally an entry ban by the United States and EU on Lukashenko and other officials on grounds he rigged his 2006 re-election.

The president has courted the 27-nation EU since a row with Russia last year over energy prices. Brussels is generally less strident in its criticism, while U.S. officials have described Belarus as "the last dictatorship in Europe".

Both have welcomed Belarus's recent efforts to improve ties, while denouncing its actions against protesters. They want Lukashenko to free Alexander Kozulin, the country's most prominent detainee, who ran against him in a 2006 election and was jailed for 5-1/2 years for protesting against the result.

(Writing by Ron Popeski, editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/mediaNews/idUSL2725216820080327

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