MINSK, Belarus (AP) -- Black-clad riot police clubbed demonstrators as government opponents marched Saturday in defiance
of a show of force by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko that has drawn U.S. and European Union sanctions.
A week into protests set off by the disputed election that handed Lukashenko a third term, opposition leader Alexander
Milinkevich told a crowd of thousands that momentum is growing to bring democracy to Belarus.
"We are starting work against dictatorship, and this work will sooner or later
bear its fruit," he said.
But Milinkevich also urged a monthlong recess in protests, apparently hoping to calm tensions and gain time to build
opposition forces, which have fallen far short of the huge outpourings that peacefully overturned governments in Ukraine
and Georgia. (Watch how police have reacted with violence to peaceful protests -- :58)
The day of confrontation and wildly swinging emotions left two big questions for the former Soviet republic of 10
million people, characterized in the West as Europe's last dictatorship: How much dissent are the authorities willing to
allow and how much support does the opposition have?
Milinkevich spoke at an impromptu rally in a park after hundreds of police blocked protesters from gathering on the
central square that had been the focus of anti-Lukashenko demonstrations until riot squads swept in before dawn Friday
and arrested dozens of people.
Re: [permaculture] Belarus and peaceful demonstrations happening there & events unfolding in Ukraine, aftermath of the Orange Revolution,
Lawrence F. London, Jr., 03/26/2006