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Belarus TV Scorns Opposition Rally on Election Day

Posted on: Monday, 20 March 2006, 06:00 CST

A Belarusian TV commentator has said that the opposition failed to fulfil its pledges and to bring thousands for a rally in central Minsk on the presidential election day. He said sarcastically that the opposition's "blue revolution" has failed. By gathering a crowd in Minsk, the opposition leaders were simply trying to work off the foreign grants that had been allocated for their campaign, the TV report stressed. The following is an excerpt from a report broadcast by Belarusian TV on 20 March:

[Presenter] Without waiting for the official results [in the 19 March presidential election], the authorities' opponents called on their supporters to come out into the streets. Opposition presidential candidates used to say in public before the election that they have no chances of victory. The organization of street actions is the only possibility to report on the money spending that was allocated by foreign sponsors for the election campaign. Foreign observers and journalists did not wait for the mass protests that had been promised by the opposition and dispersed, in their disappointment. The opposition candidates ran away from the rally right after them.

[Commentator] The opposition started advertizing its blue revolution long before the election. When visiting Western capitals, the incumbent president's opponents promised that hundreds of thousands of people will be taken out to the streets. They understood even then that the opposition will not win an honest election and the only way to work off the money that had been received from foreign funds was to organize street disturbances.

[Passage omitted: the opposition repeatedly warned about "massacre" in Minsk on the election day, commentator says.]

Foreign journalists and international observers were invited to a square and were promised to see a sensational picture with a massive battle. People started gathering in the capital's central square on the evening of 19 March. Journalists, observers and diplomats were the first to come to record the dispersal of peaceful demonstrators. Opposition supporters, as well as legionaries of Ukraine's radical organizations, started gathering slowly.

[Unidentified man addressing the rally, in Ukrainian] We have come from Ukraine and we had to break through the border.

[Commentator] The blue Maydan [Kiev's Independence Square, focal point of the Orange Revolution] in central Minsk appeared to be quite different from what the opposition leaders promised. Hardly 5,000 participants gathered [the Belarusian news agency Belapan put the figure at 15,000] instead of the promised hundreds of thousands of people. It should be taken into account that journalists, observers and onlookers accounted for about 1,500. Opposition activists that one could come across were taken from the regions to Minsk to demonstrate the massive character of the event. The guests of the capital were issued the remains of the campaigning materials and placards that have been accumulated over 10 years of the rally- style democracy. The participants in the event were given lots of alcoholic drinks that were being drunk here, at the square. Soon, the tongues of many speakers began failing them.

[Passage omitted: indistinct shouts from the crowd.]

It is unknown which marine regulations [reference to candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin, a former marine in the Soviet Navy] say that one should hide behind the backs of women and children. The opposition traditionally put legal minors to the first rows.

[Passage omitted: commemorator praises the police for ensuring public order.]

The opposition leaders were late after making sure that there was no danger for them. The laurels of priest Gapon, who organized a bloody Sunday 100 years ago, were simply eating up some people. A former Komsomol activist and atheist, Alyaksandr Kazulin, came with an icon. The nature itself could not tolerate such blasphemy. A snowstorm swept through the square.

[Passage omitted: Communist leader Syarhey Kalyakin comments on the snowstorm.]

Chaos was dominating at the opposition rally. Slogans were being changed every minute. They were demanding victory for the opposition, the second [election] tour, the [Belarusian] language and independence. Each candidate was trying to be in charge, give interviews and gain the crowd's sympathy. All this was extremely unconvincing.

[Crowd chanting "Long Live Belarus!"]

[Passage omitted: an unidentified woman, a German MP, according to the commentator, addresses the rally in English and criticizes "the last undemocratic regime in Europe"; commentator says the German MP interfered in Belarus's affairs.]

[Commentator] Everything became clear to everybody after that. People began dispersing from the square. The promised sensation did not happen. Foreign journalists and observers started leaving. In absence of foreign observers, opposition candidates also ran away from the square.

[Passage omitted to end: commentator slams opposition activists for visiting Victory Square and smoking near the eternal flame.]

[Video shows footage of the rally in central Minsk; opposition candidates addressing the crowd; people drinking beer; people with nationalist white-red-white flags and Ukrainian flags marching; Kazulin marching with an icon; crowd dispersing; opposition supporters visiting Minsk's Victory Square.]

Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

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