- Title: BELARUS: Belarus opposition continues protest in central Minsk.
- Date: 25th March 2006
- Summary: PAN ACROSS CHANTING CROWD
- Embargoed: 9th April 2006 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Belarus
- Country: Belarus
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA7YEL6TSIPYHOAXL3DPYJWQQYY
- Story Text: More than 1,000 protesters chanting "Shame!" and "Long live Belarus!" defied a ban and confronted police on Saturday (March 25) 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 towards 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 (March 24).
Defeated opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich told protesters to go to the nearby Yanka Kupala park to continue their rally.
The rally was also billed as a commemoration of the independence day of a short-lived Belarussian republic in 1918.
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 but promised the opposition would hold a peaceful rally.
The rally was also billed as a commemoration of the independence day of a short-lived Belarussian republic in 1918.
"..The use of force shows that their end is nearing. It's impossible to rule the country using such methods. There should be dialogue, partnership, but they have forgotten what it means. It's sort of the last test, the last warning. As far as we are concerned, we will hold only peaceful actions, we do not plan to take the Bastille," Milinkevich told relatives of detained opposition supporters gathered outside Minsk detention centre.
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 (March 19) to the 200 or so who were rounded up by police early on Friday morning.
Milinkevich, addressing several thousands massed in a park in the capital Minsk, said that it was "the beginning of the end" for the opposition.
The rally moved to the park after riot police stopped people from gathering in October Square.
He told crowd in Minsk's Yanka Kupala park: "Those people who are hiding in their cabinets, thinking they have won the elections. But they have to face a challenge, its the beginning of their end, the end of those who cannot talk to people, who lie, who use force against people. Down with them!"
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. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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