BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

27/05/2007

Belarusian opposition in deep crisis, one of its leaders says

MINSK, May 26 (Itar-Tass) --The Belarusian opposition is in deep crisis, one of the opposition leaders, former presidential candidate Alexander Milinkevich said.

"I will say frankly that the opposition is in deep and serious crisis," he said at a congress of Belarusian democratic forces in Minsk on Saturday.

The opposition has lately lost many supporters. "They left us because they were disappointed. Last year we could not organise serious and concrete work," Milinkevich admitted.

He urged the congress to elect one leader, not co-chairmen of the political council.

Milinkevich said he would be prepared to take on such post but would not nominated himself.

However many opposition members, while admitting a deep crisis, blame it to a large extent on Milinkevich.

In their view, Milinkevich "spent too much time travelling abroad" after the elections in March 2006 and did not take any serious steps to become a nationwide recognised leader.

More than 500 delegates from the majority of opposition parties and movements took part in the congress. The heads of diplomatic missions of several Western countries attended the forum as guests.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11569589&PageNum=0