BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
26/03/2008
Police, Protestors Clash in Minsk
MINSK, Belarus, March 26--Dozens of opposition activists were detained in the capital of Belarus as police beat protesters attempting to mark a nationalist holiday.
About 2,000 people gathered for an unsanctioned demonstration in the center of Minsk to mark the brief period of independence enjoyed by Belarus after March 25, 1918.
The anniversary, which has been criticized by the country's leadership as anti-Soviet, has become a rallying point for the opposition.
As protesters moved towards a central square, an AFP reporter saw hundreds of riot police surround the crowd, beat them with truncheons and drag dozens to waiting police vans.
In violent clashes the police dragged some protesters along the ground.
They confiscated European Union flags and the red and white banner of the pre-Soviet state.
An official from the Belarusian Helsinki Group rights body said that around 80 people were detained.
Belarusian intelligence service chairman Yuri Zhadobin later told the media that no arrests had been made in what he said was a "preventive" operation. New checks would determine if laws had been broken.
Western powers have long criticized the regime of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for imprisoning opposition leaders, preventing criticism in the state-controlled media and imposing severe restrictions on rallies.
The US, which has dubbed Belarus "Europe's last dictatorship" recently, imposed economic sanctions in protest at the country's human rights record.
Source:
http://www.alalam.ir/english/en-NewsPage.asp?newsid=032030120080326082812
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