BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

27/04/2006

Belarus opposition leader jailed over rally

By Andrei Makhovsky

MINSK (Reuters) - A court in ex-Soviet Belarus sentenced main opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich to 15 days in prison on Thursday for leading a big rally the previous day that police said was unlawful.

Milinkevich has become a focus for opposition to President Alexander Lukashenko, accused in the West of crushing dissent in his state lying between Russia and three European Union members.

The EU, which said Lukashenko's landslide re-election last month was blatantly rigged, demanded Milinkevich's immediate release.

Looking calm as the judge read out the sentence, the bearded Milinkevich denied he was guilty of any crime. "This is a political action, a political sentence," Milinkevich told the court. "Leaders of leading political parties are behind bars."

Other leading opposition activists were also given short prison sentences in an apparent crackdown by authorities after about 7,000 demonstrators took part in Wednesday's rally.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy, expressed dismay at the detentions.

"I call for the immediate release of all those arrested and detained because of their opinions," she said in a statement.

Ronald Pofalla, general secretary of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic party, described the sentence as "completely unacceptable".

"We condemn the tyrannical treatment of political opponents by President Lukashenko," he said in a statement.

The EU has already imposed visa bans on top Belarus officials following the March 19 election.

"It is important that the Belarussian authorities take note of the fact that further action has not been ruled out..." said EU Commission spokeswoman Emma Udwin.

EU SUPPORT

Milinkevich came a distant second in the election, but the EU showed its support by inviting him for high-level talks in Vienna and Strasbourg in an apparent rebuke to Lukashenko.

Lukashenko has become increasingly isolated after 12 years in office. He planned to meet his main ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in St. Petersburg on Friday.

Lukashenko remains popular among rural and elderly voters who say he provides stability lacking in other ex-Soviet states. On Thursday, he signed a decree raising pensions by 7 percent.

The opposition rally on Wednesday was timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster -- traditionally a focus for anti-Lukashenko protests. Some demonstrators took a route police had told them was off limits.

The court took an hour to find Milinkevich guilty, calling two witnesses, both police officers. He was then escorted from the rear of the building to a bus, which took him to prison.

Activists said Vintsuk Vechorko, another veteran opponent of Lukashenko, was detained on Wednesday and also given a 15-day sentence for public order offences. Sergei Kalyakin, a communist and senior opposition figure, was sentenced to 14 days.

Another opposition figure said he had been beaten when taken in for questioning on Wednesday at the offices of the national security service -- still known by its Soviet-era KGB acronym.

"My car was stopped, several plainclothes people dragged me out. They beat me in the stomach (and) in the back," Anatoly Lebedko, who heads the small United Civic Party, told reporters.

He said he had been released after five hours. A KGB official said Lebedko's account was not credible.

Milinkevich told Wednesday's rally the opposition planned to push Lukashenko out of office within two years by using civil disobedience. New protests were planned, starting from May 1.

"Our objective is to create a stir in society," Milinkevich told Reuters in the court.

(Additional reporting by Olena Horodetska)

Source:

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-04-27T162220Z_01_L27370792_RTRUKOC_0_US-BELARUS-SENTENCE.xml

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