BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

13/12/2007

US condemns beating of Belarus protestors

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States condemned the severe beating of pro-democracy protestors by police in Belarus on Wednesday, which left at least one activist hospitalized.

"We condemn the use of brutal force against demonstrators today in Minsk," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement, singling out party leader Zmiter Fedaruk, who he said had been "specifically targeted."

Fedaruk, director of the opposition political party Young Front, was among 100 people demonstrating in central Minsk when nearly 200 police swooped and violently dispersed the rally, according to reports.

The demonstrators were protesting a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin and a project of political union with Russia. Putin was to discuss this with ex-Soviet Belarus' hardline leader Alexander Lukashenko.

The protestors gathered waving national flags on October Square, near Lukashenko's residence. When the police charged in, Fedaruk was knocked to the ground and fell unconscious.

"He has been hospitalized with serious injuries," McCormack said. "This incident is another in a long series of repressive acts by the Belarussian authorities against their own citizens."

He said Fedaruk and another opposition party leader, Anatoly Lebedko, had been part of a Belarus pro-democracy delegation that met with US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week in Washington.

"We again call on the Belarussian authorities to refrain from the use of force against their own people, and to allow the exercise of fundamental rights, including free speech and assembly," McCormack added.

A UN General Assembly committee last month approved a resolution expressing "deep concern" about continued repression of the political opposition and human rights groups in Belarus.

The text also condemned it for harassing journalists and banning independent media.

The Bush administration has previously branded Lukashenko "the last dictator in Europe."

Source:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/071213/usa/us_belarus_demo_rights_1