BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

27/03/2008

Belarus KGB raids independent broadcasters

(Adds foreign ministry, TV channel, Polish president)

By Andrei Makhovsky

MINSK, March 27 (Reuters) - Security police raided Belarussian broadcasters' offices and arrested 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, accused by the West of trampling on human rights, 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 in several cities of two independent radio stations, Polish-funded Radio Racja (Right) and EU-backed European Radio.

"They say the formal grounds for this is a criminal case on insulting the president," she said.

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

The foreign ministry later said the journalists, who were released after questioning, did not have proper accreditation.

"The actual issue is about certain private individuals from among Belarussian citizens, who for a long time have been working as journalists in Belarus for foreign money," ministry spokeswoman Maria Vanshina said.

MESSAGE TO THE WEST

All the broadcasters have tiny audiences in the country of 10 million where state media are subject to tight control.

Belsat TV, sponsored by Polish TVP public television, said it was also raided as a punishment for airing images of police action two days ago at the rally. Witnesses said people taking part in that protest had been beaten by the police.

"I am deeply concerned about recent developments in Belarus. Let's hope this is only temporary but it still causes most serious concerns," Polish President Lech Kaczynski told reporters.

Belsat spokesman Siarhiej Pelesa told Reuters in Warsaw the raid was "an attempt to threaten and further marginalise independent journalists in Belarus and block their work by confiscating cameras, microphones and other equipment".

Belarus's small liberal and nationalist opposition said the raids and police action could quash efforts to improve foreign ties. "It is a message to the West -- the more pressure you put on us, the more pressure we will put on those calling for change in Belarus," said prominent opposition leader Anatoly Lebedko.

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. "We must not be tied strictly to Russia, the EU and the United States."

The president had courted the 27-nation EU after a row with Russia last year over energy prices. U.S. officials have described Belarus as "the last dictatorship in Europe", but the EU has been less strident in its criticism.

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. (Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Warsaw; Writing by Ron Popeski, editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/mediaNews/idUSL2782984720080327

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