Brutality in Belarus


Is tyranny growing in Eastern Europe?
Just a reminder that the world doesn't revolve around the United States and the Middle East.

Belarus looks like it is descending into tyranny.

More than 10,000 Belarusians took to the streets of Minsk to mark the national Day of Liberty this past Saturday. The celebration, including a concert by a national orchestra and a peace protest against unfair elections and mass arrests, was planned to be held in the central Oktyabrskaya Square. But it was not to be. Thousands of troopers in militia and special forces uniforms surrounded the square and the streets around it. The dictatorship used truncheons, riot gear and gas grenades on peaceful marchers carrying flowers.

A massive campaign of intimidation started two weeks ago in Belarus, during the election campaigns. During that time, 35 reporters were harassed with administrative legal action, nine foreign reporters among them. On the list of the detained reporters is well known Russian TV ORT reporter, Pavel Sheremet. He was physically attacked by special forces agents on the street, taken to a hospital, and later in the night secretly taken from the hospital (with double pneumonia) and brought into the Okrestino bull-pen (the main detention center where protesters are being held).

A week earlier, just before election day, Belarusian authorities "wrote a magnificent scenario" on how to restrain people from coming to the main square. Hollywood screenwriters would envy their ingenuity. The government used the cellphone system to send people text messages, warning them to stay away from the Minsk central square on election day, saying that bloodshed and massive provocations were expected and that people would endanger their lives going there. The chief of the KGB, Stepan Suharenko, announced before election day that anybody who came to the center square on the day of elections might be accused of terrorism and jailed.

I've not had time to follow this one in depth, but it is scary. Especially considering Russia's internal dynamics right now.

Hat tip to Sunni Maravillosa and the Conspirators.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Wed - March 29, 2006 at 04:25 AM  Tag


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