BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

08/04/2006

Belarus's Lukashenko to be sworn in for third term

By Olena Horodetska

MINSK (Reuters) - President Alexander Lukashenko, accused in the West of systematically crushing human rights, takes the oath of office on Saturday to start a third term in office in ex-Soviet Belarus.

After 12 years in power, the 51-year-old leader faces increasing pressure from Western countries, unprecedented opposition protests and the prospect of big rises in the price of gas from Russia, Belarus's key ally and trading partner.

On the eve of the ceremony, police tightened security in the city center, cordoning off whole districts to traffic.

The opposition plans a low-key protest on Saturday, but says it is concentrating on a bigger rally later in the month.

Four state television channels were due to broadcast the event live, starting at 1145 GMT, when Lukashenko drives in a cortege to the imposing Palace of the Republic.

The balding and moustachioed president will read the oath and then preside over a military parade outside.

Concerts and theatrical presentations were planned throughout Minsk, a city of 1.7 million rebuilt nearly from scratch after World War Two.

But the festivities belie the problems below the surface.

Dubbed "batka" or father, Lukashenko won the March 19 presidential election with a tally of 83 percent to 6 percent to his closest rival -- liberal Alexander Milinkevich.

Opponents say that score was artificially inflated. International observers say the poll was neither free nor fair.

Lukashenko's inauguration was originally scheduled for March 31, but officials postponed it without explanation. Rumours swirled in Minsk that he had been unsettled by large opposition protests -- by Belarussian standards -- over his re-election.

The liberal and nationalist opposition erected a tent city in October Square, focal point of Saturday's ceremonies. Police tolerated the protests for four days, then broke them up.

The European Union, which has long accused Lukashenko of stifling independent media and hounding rivals, gave a warm welcome to Milinkevich this week in European capitals.

And EU foreign ministers are to approve a visa ban next week on Lukashenko and 30 other top officials.

In a sign that Belarus is undergoing change, Minsk residents have begun wearing badges in the red-and-white national colors banned by Lukashenko in his 1990s drive to restore Soviet-era symbols. Emblazoned on the badge is the slogan: "For Freedom."

But the biggest challenge for Lukashenko may come from his main ally -- Moscow. Russia's gas giant Gazprom has said it wanted to raise gas prices for Belarus from 2007.

Russia virtually subsidizes Belarus's unreformed economy and supplies gas at a preferential price of about $47 per 1,000 cubic meters. Any increase would threaten Lukashenko's trump card with ordinary Belarussians -- relative economic stability.

Source:

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-04-07T234253Z_01_L07183676_RTRUKOC_0_US-SUBBED-ONITER-BELARUS.xml&archived=False