BELARUS: Milinkevich says opposition is taking a break as his supporters go on trial

Record ID: 858232

  • Title: BELARUS: Milinkevich says opposition is taking a break as his supporters go on trial
  • Date: 27th March 2006
  • Summary: (W3) MINSK, BELARUS (MARCH 27, 2006) (REUTERS) PEOPLE OUTSIDE MINSK DETENTION CENTRE WOMEN OUTSIDE DETENTION CENTRE PEOPLE OUTSIDE DETENTION CENTRE
  • Embargoed: 11th April 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belarus
  • City:
  • Country: Belarus
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACCGDXICP46YTYKUIY5YXXDHFJ
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  • Story Text: Belarussian courts began trying opposition protesters on Monday (March 27), detained when police broke up a weekend rally against a presidential election judged unfair in the west.
    The opposition had rallied up to 10,000 supporters for protests over the past week, demonstrations unmatched in recent years in a country ruled with a Soviet-style authoritarian hand by veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko.
    Police on Saturday (March 25) broke up the protests against Lukashenko's landslide re-election on March 19 and detained demonstrators, prompting rebukes from European countries and pledges of more rallies from the opposition.
    On Monday, buses drove dozens of mostly young people from detention centres in the capital Minsk to court. They face sentences of up to 15 days in jail for joining unauthorised rallies and violating public order.
    Among those detained was Alexander Kozulin, an opposition presidential challenger. Police have declined to say where Kozulin is being held and it was not clear if he would appear in court on Monday.
    Standing next to a concrete wall tipped with barbed wire at one detention centre on Minsk's fringes, relatives waved to some of the detained who made victory signs from the interior of a bus guarded by police.
    Opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich -- who along with Kozulin called the protests after polls gave Lukashenko, criticised in the west for his authoritarian rule but viewed by Moscow as an ally -- 83 percent of the vote - visited the court. He called for new rallies, but said the opposition was taking a temporary break at the present time.
    "The regime is afraid, but we have taken a break temporarily, because it's very important to lead even more people out on to the streets," Milinkevich said after the court passed sentences on some of his supporters.
    Court sentences handed out to the young opposition supporters who organised a tent camp in central Minsk averaged from 7 to 15 days in prison. There was no information about whether the opposition leader Alexander Kozulin had been sentenced.
    Police said they only used force after the opposition rally turned violent and endangered their men. They have not disclosed the number of the detained but the opposition say around 100 protesters are being held.
    The European Union urged Lukashenko, admired by many at home as a man whose rule has saved Belarus from the turmoil that befell many ex-Soviet countries, to release Kozulin and said it was "appalled" by the clashes.
    Minsk responded by accusing the west of trying to foment unrest and said the European Union and Washington were "on the verge of anti-Belarussian hysteria".
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