Belarus ballot 'severely flawed'

[Siegmund]

Belarus ballot 'severely flawed'
Last Updated: Monday, 20 March 2006, 13:15 GMT

European election monitors have said the re-election of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko was flawed and failed to meet international standards.

An EU commissioner said it was "very likely" the EU would impose sanctions.

Mr Lukashenko - branded "Europe's last dictator" by the US - said the vote was fair and denounced "foreign pressure".

The main opposition candidate, Alexander Milinkevich, called for a re-run, and for street protests against an "illegal, illegitimate president"

Election officials said Mr Lukashenko won 82.6% of the vote, which had a turnout of 92.6%. It gives the president, in power since 1994, a third term in office.

[More]

[Siegmund]

West to put sanctions on Belarus
Last Updated: Friday, 24 March 2006, 19:13 GMT

The EU and US are to impose sanctions against Belarus over an election that gave President Alexander Lukashenko a landslide victory and third term.

The White House has joined EU leaders, meeting in Brussels, in condemning an overnight crackdown against opposition protesters in the capital, Minsk.

The opposition says 500 people were detained after riot police broke up a five-day long protest against the poll.

Belarus officials insist that last Sunday's vote was democratic.

Opponents have accused the government of vote rigging and international observers said the poll was severely flawed.

The main opposition leader, Alexander Milinkevich, has vowed to continue his fight to have Mr Lukashenko's re-election annulled and said a major rally would go ahead in the capital on Saturday.

[More]

[Wilkolak]

When will this damned Belarussian affair be over? I am so sick of seeing that guy's face on TV, and hearing his anti-Polish comments! And what's worse is the Polish prime minister Marcinkiewicz wants to financialy aid the Belarussian students who were kicked out of state universities for siding with the opposition, while hundreds and thousands of Poles sit abroad because all the Polish government can do is argue over how the sejm should be structured and the status involved with dragging Belarus out of it's "dictatorship"! Poles first it should be in Polish politics! I also need to go to England soon because I have no chance here! Lukanshenko, Kaczynski and all other Polish/Belarussian politicians in power should be made to clean toilets in the West, not Polish students and other inteligencja!

[svin]

Belarussians support Lukashenko, that's fact.

Anyway, current Georgian presdient Saakashvili won 95% of votes! And nobody in European media called him dictator. And nobody in European media expressed doubt in elections results. That's funny, isnt' it?

[svin]

Anyway, I highly doubt that liberal governmnents of other European countries are better, than Lukashenko... And not that I like Lukashenko, I just can't understand how pro-liberal opposition is better.

[Wilkolak]

A pro-liberal government is obviously not better, but it is hardly worse. Lukashenko is a fool who aspires to lead the Russian-Belarussian Union (kind of dreaming of a pseudo-USSR), plus some of the ridiculous things are similair to that guy ruling Turkmenistan (Azarbayev? Nazarbayev? Whatever!), such as the self-proclaimed status of Backa, and trying to propose a "Slavic Union" of Russia, Belarus, Russia and Yugoslavia against the West. So what are Poles, Czechs and Slovaks if not Slavs? Well, one thing I can't take away from him is his love for his nation, and the fairly good performance of the economy recently in Belarus (I would not be surprized if it was better than Poland's)!

[Wilkolak]

And another thing, actually on topic, because that's what should be doing: I think the election was free and fair. I think as long as he stops causing issues with Poland and the Ukraine, he can rule as long as he wants!

[Siegmund]

Crackdown on Belarussian Opposition Sparks Outrage
Europe | 26.03.2006

Riot police clash with protesters in the Belarusian capital Minsk

The latest police crackdown and arrests of Belarussian opposition activists have sparked protest in the West, even as the opposition searches for ways to regroup after the latest events.

Saturday's arrest of Alexander Kozulin, a former dean of Minsk university and a runner-up in the March 19 presidential election that saw authoritarian Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko re-elected to a third term in office, unleashed a new chorus of protest by the West at the Belarussian leadership's tactics.

"The United States deplores today's use of force by Belarussian authorities against peaceful demonstrators in Minsk," said US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack in a statement.

The statement called "on Belarussian authorities to refrain from further use of force and arrests against those exercising their legitimate rights to assembly and expression".

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for the immediate release Saturday of arrested Belarussian opposition activists.

"I condemn the imprisonment of opposition leader Kozulin and I demand that he be immediately released along with the hundreds of other activists jailed over the past few days," Steinmeier said. "The fundamental rights of freedom of opinion and assembly should be assured in Belarus," said the foreign minister.

[More]

[Siegmund]

Belarus jails Lukashenko's foes
Last Updated: Tuesday, 28 March 2006, 09:47 GMT 10:47 UK

Belarussian courts have jailed more than 150 opposition protesters following demonstrations against the president's landslide election victory.

Those sentenced to up to 15 days in jail included Mariusz Maszkiewicz, a former Polish ambassador to Belarus.

President Alexander Lukashenko's re-election on 19 March has been widely condemned as fraudulent by the opposition and by Western observers.

A runner-up in the election, Alexander Kozulin, is also in jail.

He could face up to six years in jail on hooliganism charges, correspondents report.

Mr Kozulin was arrested when police broke up an opposition rally in Minsk on Saturday. He is being held in a jail in Zhodino, 40km (25 miles) north-east of the capital.

Mr Kozulin complained of back and knee pain after being beaten by police, his lawyer Igor Rynkevich told the Associated Press news agency.

[More]

[svin]

The United States deplores today's use of force by Belarussian authorities against peaceful demonstrators in Minsk

Peaceful... He-h. Did you see how Italian police treated antiglobalist meeting in 2001? Comparing with them, Belarus police are angels.








I still can't stop but laughing at European liberal media.

[Menydh]

The sight of blood makes it sometimes look much worse than it really is.

[svin]

Well, I certainly don't want to portray Italian carabiners as evil sadists, but I'm just saying that in any other European country public meeting that is not officially allowed would be treated that way. People on this meeting would be persecuted by police. So, I'm just wondering, why Belarus police shall treat illegal meeting with other methods? Questions must be asked to liberal media, of course...