BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

08/01/2008

Belarus detains business leader before protest march

MINSK, Jan 8 (Reuters) - A Belarussian leader of an association for small businesses said on Tuesday he had been released from brief police detention after a court hearing, two days before a planned protest against a restrictive decree.

Victor Gorbachev had been detained on Tuesday accused of being involved in a street fight, just before he was due to help organise the protest against the decree of President Alexander Lukashenko, who is accused of human rights abuses by the West.

The decree states individuals who run small businesses must only employ close relatives or transform their holdings into larger organisations. It prompted many small businesses to go on strike as of the start of the year.

"The detention (was) connected to Gorbachev's activities. I think several thousands of individual entrepreneurs will take part in the protest, and the authorities are afraid of it", said Anatoly Shumchenko, a leader of another business association.

Gorbachev told Reuters the case against him had been dismissed because the court could not establish a crime had been committed. Shumchenko estimated about 40 percent of some 205,000 small businesses to be on strike in the former Soviet state of 10 million people.

The entrepreneurs held a protest against the decree in December but only several dozen took part.

The United States and the European Union have banned Lukashenko entry to their countries, saying he and the authorities jail opponents, disrupt protests and rig elections, including his own re-election to a third term in 2006.

Washington tightened sanctions against Belarus in November and said it could impose more, prompting Lukashenko to say he would expel the U.S. ambassador if that were to happen. (Writing by Sabina Zawadzki, Editing by Matthew Jones)

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