BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

16/03/2007

Belarus Opposition Still Divided on Major Congress

The opposition in Belarus, backed by the West in accusing authorities of human rights abuses, failed to heal a split in its ranks.

The opposition last year staged big protests against the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko, but divisions have since re-emerged among its liberal and nationalist groups.

Opposition activists last year backed academic Alexander Milinkevich as the sole challenger to Lukashenko, but other prominent figures have since called for a "rotating" leadership.

Groups led by veteran opposition figure Anatoly Lebedko on Friday announced a new date in April for the strategy congress. But Milinkevich said he wanted nothing to do with it.

"If we can get all the documents and our strategy ready, the congress will take place on April 22-23," Lebedko, leader of the United Civic Party, told Reuters.

The congress should be seen as the highest body of the opposition coalition, he said

Milinkevich, who finished second with six percent in last year's election in the ex-Soviet state compared with 83 percent for the president, has accused other opposition groups of provoking divisions.

"I will take no part in this congress which some members of the coalition are in such a hurry to organise," he said.

"This will be a congress of party groups and not of democratic forces as a whole. If leaders at the top do not want real unity, I will organise it from the bottom."

The congress was to have taken place this weekend before the annual March 25 rally honouring the short-lived Belarussian People's Republic, crushed by Bolshevik forces in 1918.

That gathering is to proceed, but organisers acknowledge that the number of participants is unlikely to be very high.

Splits have dogged the opposition throughout Lukashenko's more than 12 years in office. Backed by the United States and European Union, opposition members accuse the president of hounding rivals, silencing the media and rigging elections.

Proclamation of the results of the last election touched off mass protests broken up by police only after four days, with more than 600 arrests.

The opposition has since maintained a low profile, playing only a limited role in local elections in January.

Opposition figures have appealed to Lukashenko to join them in upholding Belarussian independence in view of the president's New Year row with Russia over energy price rises.

But authorities this week detained a prominent opposition activist and ordered him to appear in court two days before next week's rally on charges of unruly behaviour.

Source:

http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=27098