BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/04/2007

'Bluetooth Revolution' in Belarus?

By Alexa Chopivsky, NBC News Producer

President Aleksander Lukashenko, dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by Condoleeza Rice, rules Belarus with a Soviet-style fist.

The country is nestled in Europe's womb, sandwiched between Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and Russia.

Independent media are banned and attending a political rally can land you in jail. Last year's presidential elections were called everything from "fraudulent" by the U.S. government to "clownery" by a U.S.-based Belarusian blogger.

Since he was six years old - when Lukashenko came to power - Franak Viacorka, a 19 -year-old activist, has watched his country of 10 million people stagnate. While other former Soviet republics developed civil societies, albeit to varying degrees of success, Belarus was frozen in a Cold War-era time warp.

Yet there is a trace of change in the Belarusian air. And it's coming in the form of Bluetooth, Skype, and rock videos as Viacorka is challenging his generation to be catalysts for change - and he is getting his message out using modern methods capable of evading government censors.

New technology ushers in political change

"I think the Internet and new techniques are especially open for young people, who are looking to be familiar with this technology," explained Miroslaw Dembinski, who followed Viacorka for four weeks over a one-year period in the lead-up to the 2006 election, making a documentary about the Belarusian youth opposition's political efforts.

"The power of the young generation, I believe, can break this regime's isolation." Dembinski said.

Dembinski's film chronicles, for example, how Skype technology enabled an interview with the anti-Lukashenko candidate, Alexander Milinkevich, to be recorded and transmitted from a computer in a private home in Belarus to a computer in Poland.

Polish TV then broadcast the interview, prompting the Polish TV presenter to declare, "Belarusian authorities are limiting free access information, but this cannot be done completely because the world is becoming a global village."

Watch this video to hear more about Viacorka and why Eastern Europe's next democratic movement just might be dubbed the "Bluetooth Revolution."

Source:

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/04/111242.aspx

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