BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

27/04/2006

Belarus opposition vows to carry on fight

MINSK-Up to 10,000 opposition supporters massed in the Belarusian capital yesterday to mark the 20th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, despite police fencing off a downtown square where they had planned to rally.

Alexander Milinkevich, the opposition candidate who challenged authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in last month's disputed election, said closing Oktyabrskaya Square showed authorities were scared. He vowed to continue protests and call for Lukashenko's impeachment.

"We will not wait five years, we will do it in a year or two, maybe faster. Through peaceful action we will destroy this regime," he told the crowd.

Prosecutors summoned Milinkevich earlier in the day and, he said, warned him not to appear at the rally commemorating the nuclear accident that covered nearly a quarter of Belarus' land with radioactive fallout in 1986, when both states were part of the Soviet Union.

Oktyabrskaya Square was where an unprecedented week of anti-government protests were held in March after a presidential election the opposition charged was fraudulent.

Toward evening, a crowd of 10,000 walked to a memorial to Chornobyl victims.

The opposition challenges the government's contention that the consequences of Chornobyl are being dealt with, and it strongly objects to programs to resettle people in fallout-contaminated areas that had been evacuated.

Viktor Ivanov disputed the official claims of good treatment.

"During the whole 20 years, I've received only one packet of Chinese tea as humanitarian aid," he said. "I feel like the government has thrown everybody away and forgotten all about us."

Source:

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1146088214592&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724