BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

14/10/2007

Belarusian opposition activists march through Minsk calling for closer ties to Europe

The Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus: Thousands of Belarusian opposition activists shouting "freedom" marched through the center of the capital Sunday to pressure authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko to move Belarus closer to Europe.

"We want to live by the laws of Europe, not by the laws of dictatorship," opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich told about 5,000 people who had gathered on a square near the Academy of Sciences for what was called the European March.

"We will be protesting like this until we win and until we are free," he told the crowd.

City authorities had prohibited the opposition groups from rallying at the central October Square, the focus of unprecedented anti-government protests last year after Lukashenko's re-election in a vote condemned by opponents and the West as illegitimate.

But up to 3,000 activists defied a ban and marched from October Square to the approved gathering point near the Academy of Sciences. Police warned them they were breaking the law but took no action to stop them.

"It is impossible to stop history," said one of the protesters, Anatoliy Matveichuk, 40, a teacher. "The youth and the elite have chosen Europe. There is no stopping them."

The demonstrators, some of whom had wrapped themselves in the blue European Union flag, later set out for a square in northwest Minsk where they had been given permission to rally.

Once there, though, the opposition leaders were not permitted to use megaphones to address the crowd. The rally ended peacefully.

About 200 members of a radical youth group marched separately from the main opposition crowd chanting "Long live Belarus." They were followed by several busloads of riot police.

Lukashenko, described by Washington as "the last dictator in Europe," has ruled Belarus since 1994, quashing dissent, closing down independent media and cracking down on private business.

The United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on him and on senior members of his government.

"Lukashenko will not prevent Belarus from taking its proper place in Europe," said another marcher, Alena Gorodetskaya, an 18-year-old student. "The future is with Europe, not the last dictatorship."

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/14/europe/EU-GEN-Belarus-Opposition.php