BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20/12/2006

Belarusian security chief vows to bar street protests around local election

By: YURAS KARMANAU

MINSK, Belarus (AP) - Belarus's security chief vowed Wednesday to thwart any potential street protests or demonstrations surrounding next month's elections for municipal councils.

Stepan Sukharenko, director of the ex-Soviet republic's KGB, also said he supported legislation introduced by President Alexander Lukashenko that would widen the definition of extremism, potentially to include opposition pronouncements.

"Opponents of the current authorities . . . conduct acts of civil disobedience with the aim of changing the existing state structure," he said. "Social order and stability will be guaranteed."

Sukharenko also asserted that living standards in Belarus were rising, which he said added to the country's stability.

In another development, the Foreign Ministry criticized Canada for new measures restricting Canadian exports to Belarus.

The new regulations, announced Monday by Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay and International Trade Minister David Emerson, allow for the export of some humanitarian items such as food, clothing and medicines, but "permits for other items will generally be denied," the Foreign Affairs Department said in a statement.

"It is Canada's hope that economic pressure in the form of export restrictions will help bring about positive change in Belarus," Emerson said in announcing the move.

Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, quashing dissent, maintaining power through elections dismissed by critics as illegitimate and earning himself the nickname of "Europe's last dictator" from the United States and much of Europe.

Some activists, emboldened by mass uprisings in Ukraine and Georgia, have sought to spark similar movements in Belarus, only to be blocked or thwarted by Belarus's severe security agencies.

Following presidential elections in March - which Lukashenko won and which were widely derided as rigged - large crowds protested in Minsk for nearly a week until police crushed them. A protest the following month drew about 10,000 people but also was swiftly quashed by police.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Popov blamed the United States for pressuring Canada to impose the export restrictions, which he said were cynical.

"Attempts by the Canadian authorities to put pressure on Belarus, having interfered in our internal political process, are considered by us to be shortsighted and pointless," Popov said.

Canada and Belarus had relatively small trade turnover last year, reaching about C$33 million.

Source:

http://www.news1130.com/news/international/article.jsp?content=w122075A