Dozens of protesters unjustly sentenced in corrupt Belarus

A police officer escorts a detained opposition activist in a court building in Minsk, Belarus on Wednesday.

MINSK, Belarus: The courts on Wednesday sentenced dozens of protesters detained in an illegal protest against President Alexander Lukashenko, who is accused in the West of stifling human rights.

The European Union and the United States criticized the police for rounding up demonstrators. The EU, generally less strident in its criticism, urged Belarus, a former Soviet republic, to pursue its recent drive for better ties with Western countries.

But Belarus's opposition said the police action Tuesday could signal an end to Lukashenko's efforts to improve foreign relations.

Lukashenko has courted the 27-nation EU since a dispute with Russia last year over energy prices, but is at odds with the United States over sanctions and human rights.

The Interior Ministry said that 70 protesters faced public-disorder charges and that by early evening the courts had handed down 55 sentences - fines or up to 15 days in jail.

A Reuters photographer said one courthouse was surrounded by riot police officers, with access barred.

The police on Tuesday surrounded hundreds of protesters in a city square in the capital, Minsk, beat them and bundled dozens into vehicles. Eighteen detainees, some of them foreigners, were freed within hours.

"This is, of course, a signal to the West that there will be no weakening of the regime in Belarus," said Alexander Milinkevich, the opposition's most prominent leader.

He said the authorities had done "a complete about-turn in tactics" by using force after months of restraint, and predicted that the EU might become less reluctant to impose new sanctions.

In Brussels, the EU's external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, described the police action as "unacceptable."

"I am all the more dismayed by these events, since we had recently seen some more positive actions by the Belarussian authorities," she said in a statement.

Belarus, she said, had to understand that such action "needs to be confirmed if we are to engage in a full partnership."

A U.S. State Department spokesman, Chase Beamer, said the crackdown showed that Lukashenko was still flouting basic freedoms.

"We call for the immediate release of those arrested for peacefully protesting, in addition to the other remaining political prisoners being held by Belarus," he said. "Only then will the United States and Belarus be able to begin moving towards meaningful dialogue."

Milinkevich, one of two opposition candidates to run against the president in 2006, said the change in tactics was dictated by strong objections to Western sanctions.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/26/europe/belarus.php

Fuck Lukashenko and the rest of his criminal government!

Dozens of protesters unjustly sentenced in corrupt Belarus

Dozens of protesters unjustly sentenced in corrupt Belarus

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