BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
18/11/2008
Ex-Belarus Presidential Candidate Says Police Searched Office
MINSK, Belarus (AFP)--A former opposition Belarus presidential candidate said Tuesday police had searched his office in what he called "political provocation."
Alexander Milinkevich told AFP that the authorities in Minsk were cracking down on anyone who advocates a "warming of relations with the international community" or backs "reforms towards the democratization and liberalization" of the ex-Soviet country, still strongly aligned to Russia.
An aide to Milinkevich - awarded the European Union's top human rights award, the Sakharov prize, after losing in 2006 presidential polling - said "sheriff officers entered, followed by the police and they sealed off computers, tables and chairs."
Ella Garetskaia said the investigators cited a criminal inquiry into the affairs of the son of Milinkevich's office landlord.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has ruled the country of 10 million people with an iron fist since 1994, keeping in place a Soviet-style command economy.
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