BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/12/2006

Belarusian police detain participants in opposition rally

The Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus: Truncheon-wielding police detained more than 20 demonstrators who rallied Sunday to demand freedom for an opposition leader imprisoned for months, rights activists said.

About 50 opposition protesters gathered on the Belarusian capital's central square to urge the authorities to free Alexander Kozulin, who was arrested in March after leading a protest march following presidential elections in which he was one of four candidates.

Several minutes after the protest started, riot police disbanded the demonstrators, beating them with truncheons and rounding up more than 20, the Vyasna rights center said.

The elections, in which authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner of a third term, were widely criticized in the West as undemocratic.

Kozulin, who was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison, has been on a hunger strike for more than 50 days to protest the verdict, and his wife said Friday he was in a critical condition.

Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, quashing dissent and maintaining power through elections dismissed by critics abroad and at home as illegitimate.

"Lukashenko is relying on repression and fear in order to preserve the last dictatorship in Europe," said 18-year old Rita Kruglyakova, one of the protesters.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/10/europe/EU_GEN_Belarus_Opposition.php

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