BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
25/03/2008
Police break up protest by thousands in Belarus
The Associated Press reports that hundreds of people were arrested in central Minsk Tuesday by riot police after thousands of opposition protesters defied a government ban to stage a demonstration honoring a banned Belarusian holiday.
The AP reports that many of the protesters chanted "Long Live Belarus!" and waved opposition and European Union flags as police warned them through loudspeakers that the meeting was illegal and that they should disperse. After about an hour, the AP reports, police waded into the crowds, beat demonstrators with truncheons and hauled them away to waiting police trucks.
The United States and some European countries have dubbed Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko "Europe's last dictator" for his government's efforts to quash opposition groups and independent media.
March 25 has long been a traditional day of demonstration for the opposition, marking what they call Freedom Day - the anniversary of the 1918 declaration of the first, short-lived independent Belarusian state. Belarus is a former Soviet Republic.
Vladimir Naumov, interior minister of the former Soviet Republic, had warned beforehand that the "unsanctioned march" would be prevented "in accordance with the necessary laws."
Source:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/03/police-break-up.html
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