BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

08/01/2007

Belarus Opposition Leader Accuses Traffic Police Of Harassment

January 8, 2007 -- The leader of the Belarusian opposition, Alyaksandr Milinkevich, accused the country's traffic police of harassing him during a campaign trip.

The Belapan news agency reports today that police officers stopped a vehicle carrying Milinkevich six times over the last two days on a variety of pretexts.

Aside from routine identification-paper checks, the pretexts included alleged driving while intoxicated, the vehicle's purported involvement in a past traffic accident, and failure to wear seatbelts.

The stops lasted from a few minutes to several hours, including side trips to local police stations.

As a result, Milinkevich repeatedly arrived late or failed to show at pro-democracy campaign rallies.

(Belapan, dpa)

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/01/6c2279a1-76bd-4ae3-9112-6d6d6dba1efe.html