BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

22/01/2008

Belarus Leader Lukashenko Dismisses Business Rally

Reuters

Twenty-three activists were jailed after a similar protest two weeks ago, including leaders of the entrepreneur movement.

The president of Belarus on Tuesday dismissed complaints by entrepreneurs about new rules governing business and said protests were being stage-managed by the opposition.

A court in the ex-Soviet state jailed and fined 12 of about 2,000 activists who joined an unauthorised rally on Monday that was broken up by police. The opposition movement Vyasna said the participants were handed 15 day sentences for public order offences and fined up to $700.

Small entrepreneurs say new 2008 regulations deny them the right to hire workers outside their immediate families or oblige them to re-register and be subject to higher taxes.

But President Alexander Lukashenko, accused in the West of crushing fundamental rights, said businessmen were being manipulated by Belarus's liberal and nationalist opposition.

"Money and business do not like people going into the street. It is clearly those people who want destabilisation," Lukashenko, referring to the opposition, was quoted as saying by BELTA news agency.

"We will not allow our calm city of Minsk to be pitched into turmoil," he said during a visit to Minsk town hall. "It seems there were practically no businessmen there yesterday - only one in 10. And even those left after saying they had been misled."

Twenty-three activists were jailed after a similar protest two weeks ago, including leaders of the entrepreneur movement.

Leaders of the 200,000-strong movement have threatened to go on strike from next month and to withhold tax payments unless the new rules are rescinded. Another rally is scheduled for mid-February.

Protests three years ago prompted authorities to roll back on changes in regulations.

Lukashenko is accused by Western countries of jailing opponents, crushing independent media and rigging elections, including his re-election to a third term in 2006.

He remains broadly popular, particularly outside the capital, with disparate opposition movements in the country of 10 million drawing only small crowds to infrequent rallies.

The president says his tough line on dissent and policies of high subsidies and social benefits have spared Belarussians the upheavals of nearby ex-Soviet states.

Belarus's most prominent opposition leader, Alexander Milinkevich, this week said the new regulations had turned normally apolitical entrepreneurs into activists.

He said opposition forces were helping the entrepreneurs who saw their livelihoods threatened by foreign supermarket chains being granted licences to operate in the ex-Soviet state.

Source:

http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=116811