BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

02/04/2009

Opposition leader says fight against Lukashenko plagued by infighting

MINSK, April 2 (Reuters) - Belarus's fractured opposition is so plagued by infighting that it has lost credibility with voters and presents no alternative to President Alexander Lukashenko, a top opposition leader told Reuters on Thursday.

"For much of the opposition, the internal fight has become more important than the fight against the authoritarian regime," Alexander Milinkevich said in an interview in the cramped apartment that serves as his office.

Milinkevich, who ran as the "united" opposition candidate in a 2006 presidential election, said weakness within liberal and nationalist groups meant they were excluded from talks between the EU and Lukashenko who wants improved ties with the West.

The United States dubbed the country "the last dictatorship in Europe", while the EU slapped sanctions and a travel ban on Lukashenko after he won re-election to a third term in 2006 in a vote denounced as fraudulent in the West.

While the disparate groups that make up the opposition focussed on their differences over how to deal with Lukashenko, the last of what the West called political prisoners have been released and opposition papers are allowed to be sold.

The EU has suspended a travel ban on Lukashenko and is likely to invite him to a summit in May under a new Eastern Partnership initiative. This would be the first top-level meeting between the EU and Belarus in over a decade. "I am thoroughly convinced that the Belarussian opposition has lost its chance to become a third party in the dialogue between the authorities and the EU," Milinkevich said.

"Our influence on people has been sharply reduced. We have become weak ... and unfortunately this process (dialogue) is happening without us, though it is fortunate that it is taking place in any event," he said.

Some pro-European opposition groups say Europe has put morality aside by making overtures to Lukashenko and instead should impose more sanctions to force him to liberalise the country faster. Milinkevich disagrees.

Other opposition groups, such as the Communists, are Russian leaning and support the post-Soviet "union treaty" with Russia first signed in the mid-1990s but largely set aside. These groups criticise Lukashenko's moves to improve ties with the EU at what they see as the expense of Russian relations.

"Political leaders have forgotten how to do anything in between elections. And when elections come, they say that these are not elections, that the regime has blood on its hands and is ready to rig the results again," Milinkevich said.

"People do not see an alternative in us," he said.

The opposition remains unrepresented in parliament, though Lukashenko said before last year's election he wanted to see some opposition deputies in the chamber. (Editing by Louise Ireland)

Source:

http://www.kyivpost.com/world/38823

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