BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

21/01/2008

Belarus police use force to break up small trader march

(DPA) Minsk - Belarusian police on Monday used force to break up an anti-government demonstration by some 2,000 small traders and businessmen. The marchers in the unsanctioned protest had gathered in Minsk's central Independence Square to mark their opposition to tax hikes put into effect on small business by authoritarian President Aleksander Lukashenko.

Armoured police troopers using clubs and boots charged the peaceful demonstrators after the march column attempted to leave Independence Square and approach Oktober Square, an area of the Belarusian capital close to government buildings including Lukashenko's residence.

The riot police broke the demonstrators into some three smaller groups before making arrests or clubbing the more antagonistic entrepreneurs into submission.

There were no early reports of arrests.

A march of some 3,000 small businessmen earlier this month ended peacefully, but with arrests of organizers after the event.

One of the demands chanted by the protestors was release of 27 group leaders taken into police custody, or already serving jail time as a result of the January 10 march.

Small business, primarily the trade of imported consumer goods, is one of the few sectors of the Belarusian society not wholly dependent on the government and its state run economy.

The new tax law among other changes makes illegal for a small business to employ more than three people, and even then the employees must be directly related to the business owner.

Lukashenko has cracked down on Belarusian small businessmen in recent months, citing the need to increase government revenues in the face of rising energy costs.

Source:

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/176373,belarus-police-use-force-to-break-up-small-trader-march.html