BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

01 Apr 2005 17:28:38 GMT

Lukashenko - No Kyrgyz "banditry" in Belarus

Source: Reuters

By Andrei Makhovsky

MINSK, April 1 (Reuters) - Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday denounced the toppling of Kyrgyzstan's president and expressed dismay that other ex-Soviet states did nothing to stop it.

Lukashenko, accused in the West of crushing Belarus's small opposition, stifling the media and manipulating elections, said leaders of former Soviet republics shirked their obligations to stop "banditry" in Kyrgyzstan. He said such upheaval would never happen in Belarus as its people were "reasonable".

Western media have speculated that discontent in other ex-Soviet states could spread to Belarus. But protests against Lukashenko tend to be small and dispersed quickly by police, with their leaders detained.

Quoted by the BelTa news agency while touring a military base, Lukashenko said he was disappointed other ex-Soviet republics had stood by and watched Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev being toppled by angry crowds in Central Asia last week.

He also said the election of a liberal leader in Ukraine last year after "Orange Revolution" protests had occurred because those in power then had wielded insufficient power.

"It is sad when a member state of the collective security pact is subject to attack and destruction," Lukashenko said of Kyrgyzstan, referring to a defence pact among ex-Soviet states.

"We waited for a reaction from other states, but there was none, to say the least ... We are in a position in our country to keep the situation under control without using force. We have reasonable people. They understand everything."

Akayev, who had run his Central Asian state since communist times, has fled into exile in Russia. The new government plans to seize his family's property.

Russia says it will work with those in power in Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine and Georgia, where bloodless revolts led to election victories by liberals, have promised to help build democracy.

Lukashenko said Akayev had fallen victim to "banditry" which he blamed on the failure of the country's economy.

"People couldn't plant or harvest crops or even feed their own families. And authority was weak," he said at the Baranovichi base west of Minsk.

"Ukraine was another such instance. There was no authority there, no monolith. The president held insufficient powers."

An illegal opposition rally last week drew only a few hundred activists near Lukashenko's office in central Minsk and was quickly broken up by police.

Legal action was also taken against leaders of a protest last month by traders denouncing a new tax system -- a departure from Lukashenko's usual practice of compromising with businessmen.

Source:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L01446414.htm