Protesters confront police at Belarus rally

By Andrei Makhovsky

MINSK (Reuters) – More than 1,000 protesters chanting
“Shame!” and “Long live Belarus!” defied a ban and confronted
police on Saturday as they tried to stage a rally in Minsk
against President Alexander Lukashenko’s re-election.

Riot police, clad in black and equipped with batons,
drafted in reinforcements to handle crowds who surged out of
side streets toward Minsk’s central October Square.

Some scuffling ensued as some demonstrators pushed their
way through a police cordon. But police generally prevented the
protesters from getting onto the square, site of a tent camp
cleared away by police on Friday.

Defeated opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich told
protesters to go to the nearby Yanka Kupala park to continue
their rally.

In line with the pattern earlier in the week, police showed
tolerance unusual for the tightly-controlled ex-Soviet state
and refrained from using force to break up the demonstration.

Earlier Milinkevich, credited with only 6 percent of the
vote to Lukashenko’s 83 in the March 19 election, had urged
supporters to mass “no matter what” in October Square.

The rally was also billed as a commemoration of the
independence day of a short-lived Belarussian republic in 1918.

UNUSUAL PROTESTS

The five days of protests against an election that the
opposition says was blatantly rigged are unusual in Belarus,
where dissent is normally nipped in the bud by Lukashenko’s
state security service.

Numbers at previous demonstrations this week have varied
from several thousand last Sunday night to the 200 or so who
were rounded up by police early on Friday morning.

Demonstrators are demanding a re-run of the poll, which
handed Lukashenko five more years in power.

Events in Belarus have set Russia, which endorses
Lukashenko’s election victory, at odds with the United States
and Western Europe.

The United States and European Union issued separate
statements denouncing the police action and announcing plans to
impose restrictions, including a travel ban on Belarussian
officials in the aftermath of the election.

“The United States condemns the actions by Belarussian
security services on the morning of March 24, and we urge all
members of the international community to join us in condemning
any and all abuses,” U.S. President George W. Bush said.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe — which
described the election as flawed — as playing an “inflammatory
role” in Belarus. He defended the police action as restrained.

On Friday night, police prevented dozens of residents from
approaching the square with the intention of laying flowers.

Stiff legislation against illegal assembly together with
unrelenting police action had kept opposition activity to a
minimum in recent months. Most protests attract only a few
dozen activists.

According to incomplete opposition figures, police detained
more than 260 demonstrators in the square and drove them off in
trucks to a pre-trial detention center. Opposition activists
said 80 demonstrators had been jailed for up to 15 days.