BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

Thu 27 Oct 2005 1:19 PM ET

Belarussian KGB warns of Western "intervention"

MINSK, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Belarus's security service, known still by the Soviet acronym KGB, accused the West on Thursday of plotting to undermine President Alexander Lukashenko with tactics that could extend to direct intervention or terrorism.

Lukashenko, in power in the country of 10 million since 1994, is accused by Western countries of undermining democracy by cracking down on opponents, squeezing out independent media and clinging to Soviet-style economics.

He has accused various countries, especially the United States, of interfering in Belarus's affairs and vowed to cut short any move towards the kind of popular uprisings that overthrew governments in former Soviet Georgia and Ukraine.

"The main driving force of Western states' intelligence services, notably the United States, is to destabilise our country," Deputy KGB head Vasily Dementei told a parliamentary debate on extremism.

"They have clear tactics, up to and including direct intervention. We have seen full mobilisation, including the creation of groups which, when required, can engage in activity to overthrow the constitutional order by all means of extremist activity which, in the most extreme case, means terrorism."

He gave no details.

Lukashenko, genuinely popular among many Belarussians, particularly outside the capital, has accused the United States and European Union of launching an "information war".

He has also alleged that activists are being trained at bases in two countries bordering Belarus -- Poland and Lithuania.

The U.S. administration denounces Lukashenko as "Europe's last dictator" and has allocated $25 million to help the country's relatively small and divided liberal opposition.

The EU is soon to launch radio broadcasts into the country lying between Russia and Poland.

Lukashenko last year won popular approval, in a referendum denounced as fraudulent in the West, for a constitutional change allowing him to run for a new term in 2006.

The opposition has abandoned its frequent internal disputes and named a single candidate, independent Alexander Milinkevich, to stand against him.

Source:

http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L27443624