Police Vow Not to Move Against 'Pathetic' Rally
By Yuras Karmanau The Associated Press
MINSK -- A police commander said Wednesday that security forces would not move against the small, "pathetic" crowd camped in central Minsk that is protesting the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko.
Warmer weather raised the spirits of the few hundred demonstrators who have held an around-the-clock vigil on freezing Oktyabrskaya Ploshchad, alleging Sunday's election was fraudulent and calling for new balloting without Lukashenko. The crowd has swollen to thousands every evening.
Late Wednesday afternoon, however, four large medical vehicles appeared on the square and a water truck with hoses was parked in a position from which it could spray the crowd. The vehicles left after dark -- hours after raising anxieties among the beleaguered group.
The provocative moves came a day after opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich urged protesters to keep up the daily vigil until his supporters made a major show of strength Saturday.
The prospects of achieving a huge crowd that could force a rerun of Sunday's election seemed slim. The rallies attract 5,000 to 7,000 people at night, but dwindle by about 1 a.m., when the last city buses make their runs. Nor is there a sense that support is growing. Cars passing the election-night rally -- the biggest rally yet at about 10,000 people -- blew horns in solidarity. At midday Wednesday, there was not a honk to be heard.
Milinkevich stood in virtual darkness Tuesday night as he urged some 700 demonstrators to remain strong and return for a weekend rally. Demonstrators bounced to music -- and against the cold -- and chanted "Mi-lin-ke-vich!" and "Long Live Belarus!"
"Come here every day to speak of freedom," Milinkevich said.
While police have not moved to disperse protesters, they persisted with the arrests and harassment that marked an election campaign widely denounced as unfair. One demonstrator, Andrei Dynko, the editor of an independent newspaper who on Wednesday was sentenced to 10 days in jail, said he had heard of more than 100 people being arrested. Showing bruises on his face and chest, protester Mikhail Avdeyev said three riot police beat him up early Wednesday when he left the camp, where some 15 tents have been set up to buy cigarettes.
"They beat me up, but I am still standing here for Belarus," he said.
Riot police regiment commander Yury Podobed told reporters Wednesday that the rally would not be suppressed. He described the demonstrators as being 15 to 27 years old and numbering no more than 120. "I suggest that you climb to the roof of the Republic Palace to take a look at this pathetic scene," he said, Interfax reported.
In a direct blow to protesters in the makeshift tent camp in the square, city workers welded shut the manhole they have been using as a toilet -- it was topped by a tent -- after warning they would return with police if they were not let through the ring of demonstrators guarding the settlement.
That raised fears that police would seek to thin the ranks by detaining people if they left to use a bathroom.
According to the official vote count, Lukashenko won with nearly 83 percent. He is popular with many Belarussians for providing economic and political stability, and his victory had been expected.
But Milinkevich, who electoral officials said received 6 percent, called the incumbent's tally "monstrously inflated."
The Czech Foreign Ministry on Wednesday sent an official note to the Belarussian Foreign Ministry protesting an attack on a Czech journalist covering the presidential election, the Czech ministry said in a statement.
Jan Rybar, a reporter with the Czech daily Mlada Fronta Dnes, was beaten and robbed of his laptop and satellite phone late Sunday as he was leaving an opposition demonstration in Minsk.
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2006/03/23/011.html
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com