BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

25/03/2007

Thousands protest against government in Belarus

MINSK, Belarus: Some 15,000 opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko's authoritarian government protested in the capital on Sunday, aiming to revitalise the campaign against the leader whom Western countries have characterised as "Europe's last dictator."

Unlike many opposition demonstrations in previous years, Sunday's ended without large clashes with police. Officers blocked the demonstrators from gathering on the city's main square and dispersed crowds gathered nearby in shoving matches, but the protesters were allowed to march to a site about two kilometres away, where they rallied under close police watch but without interference.

It was the largest opposition rally since an April 2006 demonstration that followed the previous month's unprecedented week of continuous protests against Lukashenko. Although those protests attracted worldwide attention, opposition leaders held off calling for other large gatherings, aiming instead to work on local, grass-roots organising.

Sunday's rally sought to regain the momentum the opposition had built up last year, and opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich told the crowd that the free world stood behind their efforts.

"We should understand that we are not alone. The democratic world and Europe stand together with us," said Milinkevich, who was the key figure of last year's protests against Lukashenko's disputed re-election to a third term. "Lukashenko is scared of us. All the police are a sign of his fear," said a 16-year-old demonstrator with his face wrapped in a European Union flag, who declined to give his last name.

March 25 has been a traditional day of demonstration for the opposition, marking what they call Freedom Day the anniversary of the 1918 declaration of the first, short-lived independent Belarusian state. Last year's demonstration ended with police clubbing demonstrators and arresting hundreds, including unsuccessful presidential candidate Alexander Kozulin, who later was sentenced to 5 1-2 years in prison.

Last year's stage-managed election and violent end to the protests brought widespread foreign criticism of Lukashenko, and many Western countries imposed travel sanctions on Belarusian officials. Lukashenko in turn claimed the West was plotting to unseat him.

Lukashenko is an open admirer of the Soviet Union and he has kept the country's economy largely under central control. Cheap natural gas and oil from Russia had helped the country sustain significant economic growth in recent years that bolstered Lukashenko's popularity.

But Russia this year hiked oil and gas prices for Belarus, putting Lukashenko under pressure. He has begun to speak about improving ties with European nations. In a move that surprised opposition leaders, Lukashenko ordered the government to commemorate the founding of the first Belarusian state which was overrun by the Bolsheviks after only 10 months.

The government had never previously acknowledged the date. A separate government-sponsored concert and rally downtown took place on Sunday. After the opposition rally broke up, many demonstrators headed for the government-sponsored gathering, but the concert was over by the time most of them got there.

The opposition said that at least 34 activists had been detained in the run-up to Sunday's rally and that about 20 people were detained on Sunday. State-controlled television broadcast a news segment on Saturday night that warned of administrative fines and possible criminal action for violation of public order, emphasizing that this also included participation in non-sanctioned rallies. The news report never directly mentioned the opposition's planned rally, however.

Source:

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=48422