With election nearing, Belarussians crack down

[LaoSexMachine]

http://www.iht.com/images/icon/clipping.gif With election nearing, Belarussians crack down

*******, The Associated Press
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TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 2006
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MINSK, Belarus (http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?query=MINSK, Belarus&sort=swishrank) Three courts sentenced a group of activists Monday to up to 15 days in prison for participating in unauthorized rallies, as tension continued to grow in Belarus before the presidential election Sunday.
Additionally, three of Belarus's few remaining independent newspapers suspended publication after a publishing house in Russia said it could no longer print them.
The incidents were the latest in a crackdown on those who do not support President Alexander Lukashenko, who is widely expected to win a third term. About 20 activists were detained Sunday as the opposition's main presidential candidate, Alexander Milinkevich, met with voters at an event the authorities called illegal, embassy officials and rights groups said.
Three Ukrainian activists were sentenced to 10 days in prison, according to the rights group Vyasna, while 12 Belarussian activists were fined or sentenced to terms ranging from 8 to 15 days in prison, a Milinkevich aide said.
"The court hearings are taking place without lawyers and look more like acts of frightening and intimidation," said Tatyana Protko, head of the Belarussian Helsinki Committee, the country's leading human rights group.
Opposition groups have warned of election fraud and called for peaceful protests on Election Day.
Belarus's top prosecutor, Pyotr Miklashevich, accused the opposition of holding unauthorized meetings and warned that "each act violating the law would be decisively suppressed by law enforcement bodies."
Members of the opposition say that they are being denied permission to use various premises and that the authorities then deem their outdoor meetings illegal.
State television, by far the most influential medium in Belarus, paints a rosy picture of events and portrays nearby countries as beset by turmoil and mass poverty. State television and newspapers rarely even refer to the two opposition candidates by name.
The independent press, meanwhile, faces problems of its own. Svetlana Kalinkina, deputy editor of Narodnaya Volya, said its publishing house in Smolensk, across the border in Russia, had said it had insufficient capacity to keep printing the three newspapers.
"When, a week before the election, someone refuses to print three papers, it is clear there are political reasons," she said. "The authorities must have done a deal with Russian authorities who found a way to pressure the printing house."
Narodnaya Volya, with a circulation of 30,000, had exploited loopholes in the law to print and distribute the paper with the help of volunteers delivering it to private homes.
Also affected are the weeklies BDG Delovaya Gazeta and Tovarishch, each with a circulation of several thousand.
"It is possible that Belarus will have no independent press on the eve of the election," Kalinkina said. "But I hope that we will still be able to find another publishing house."
The Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, vowed that it would counter any attempts by foreign citizens to "destabilize the situation in the country" under the guise of election monitoring.
Lukashenko, whose authoritarian style has led some in the West to call him Europe's last dictator, has accused Western countries of fostering popular uprisings like the ones that brought opposition rulers to power in Georgia and Ukraine, which like Belarus are former Soviet republics.
Lukashenko, who enjoys strong backing from the Kremlin, thanked Russia for its support and its repeated reassurances that the situation in Belarus would not be destabilized.
"We have a stable, normal situation," Lukashenko said, according to his press service.


http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/13/news/minsk.php

[DeathForSale]

If Lukashenko wins so what? How is it going to effect the US except them not being able to install more "democratic" governments around Russia.

[TheStorm]

If Lukashenko wins so what? How is it going to effect the US except them not being able to install more "democratic" governments around Russia.

:roll:

Still mad that Ukraine isn't Russia's crony anymore?

[Son_Of_Suvorov]

On the one hand, I am too lazy to get politically involved. On the other hand, I enjoy burning things and attention. Maybe next time my favorite political party of the color green (http://www.marijuanaparty.com/index.en.php3) loses an election, I will go burn something on the street and get on the local news. Then after I'm done bringing freedom and democracy to Canadians, who have known nothing but the American yoke for their whole existence, I will fulfill the obligation which my other citizenship has placed on my shoulders and storm the Kremlin walls with Berezovsky!

Libertas ab Democratia!

[Mr.K]

On the one hand, I am too lazy to get politically involved. On the other hand, I enjoy burning things and attention. Maybe next time my favorite political party of the color green (http://www.marijuanaparty.com/index.en.php3) loses an election, I will go burn something on the street and get on the local news. Then after I'm done bringing freedom and democracy to Canadians, who have known nothing but the American yoke for their whole existence, I will fulfill the obligation which my other citizenship has placed on my shoulders and storm the Kremlin walls with Berezovsky!

Libertas ab Democratia!
Let's call it the maple revolution. Don't foget to trademark it and sell promotional items! Agent Berezovsky's 1st assignement will be changing the 5-pointed star to a 6-pointed star on the Spassky tower!

[Kilgor]

:roll:

Still mad that Ukraine isn't Russia's crony anymore?

Unless these former soviet states are bending over to russia like the good ol'd days, they will claim its a soros backed colour revolution or something like that. They just have to get over the idea of the days of a russian union are over.

[StukaJr]

From the article:


Opposition groups have warned of election fraud and called for peaceful protests on Election Day.

Do they employ psychics? How do they know and protest something that hasn't happened yet?



Narodnaya Volya, with a circulation of 30,000, had exploited loopholes in the law to print and distribute the paper with the help of volunteers delivering it to private homes.

Wow, 30 thousand copies and we are talking about supression of independent newspaper? That's hardly a small town circulation not to mention the nation wide...


"When, a week before the election, someone refuses to print three papers, it is clear there are political reasons," she said. "The authorities must have done a deal with Russian authorities who found a way to pressure the printing house."

She needs to look up the defenition of "clearly"


Members of the opposition say that they are being denied permission to use various premises and that the authorities then deem their outdoor meetings illegal.

Happens all the time, everywhere else - don't have permission for a gathering - it's illegal.

[DeathForSale]

Unless these former soviet states are bending over to russia like the good ol'd days, they will claim its a soros backed colour revolution or something like that. They just have to get over the idea of the days of a russian union are over.
Unless a country bends over for the US it is an axis-of-evil or rogue state etc. It goes both ways.

[StukaJr]

Unless these former soviet states are bending over to russia like the good ol'd days, they will claim its a soros backed colour revolution or something like that. They just have to get over the idea of the days of a russian union are over.

The years where Russians were blamed for everything is slowly passing - get your fix while you still can... You just hope that this election can be swayed by Protests and Political Pressure of the West, fortunately, the Orange Revolution is a good example of bitter reality.

The West likes to Win - then they forget about the countries where they won close their eyes on the political septic they've created. Stick with the "Beacon of Freedom" Georgia and other Cold War mentalities. I guess, as long as the Nation is not under "Russia's Influence" (replaced "Communism") - it can fall to Taliban, Fascism, Slavery, Wahabism and everybody will call it "Freedom and Democracy"... Because, Russians eat babies!

[Kilgor]

The soviet union for decades was promoting marxism around the world and especially in America;s back yard.

Dont you like the taste of your own medicine ?

[Mr.K]

The soviet union for decades was promoting marxism around the world and especially in America;s back yard.

Dont you like the taste of your own medicine ?
In that case YOU ARE THE EVIL EMPIRE!p-)

[StukaJr]

The soviet union for decades was promoting marxism around the world and especially in America;s back yard.

Dont you like the taste of your own medicine ?

Marxism is still promoted in America's backyard and was, way before Soviet Union - are you suggesting that Marxism was started by Soviet Union? :D

Your inane comments gotta stop! You are just saying sh1t that doesn't make any sense! What do the events of two decades ago have to do with today?

Dont you like the taste of your own medicine ?

So you are admiting that this is US's way of sowing insurection through foreign policy in Belarus?

[Lurps]

Just got to pity you, the sons of slaves not wanting freedom but more whip.

[UssuriTiger]

Would you expect a European leader who has presided over a continual increase in real wages for several years, culminating in a 24% rise over the past 12 months, to be voted out of office? What if he has also cut VAT, brought down inflation, halved the number of people in poverty in the past seven years, and avoided social tensions by maintaining the fairest distribution of incomes of any country in the region?
....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1727954,00.html

[CPL Trevoga]

Hi!

You people can't be serious, you expect ex-commies to turn into "democrats" overnight. Lay off the crack pipe will ya. Once all old commies die, there will be new leaders. This kind of things take time and patience.

People are not stupid, they vote with their pocket most of the time. If you don't have a job to feed your childern, who needs "democracy" and "freedom."?

People do question western intent, while pushing for "democratic" countries around Russia, western countries busy making money off big commie China. Lukashenko is lightweight dictator compare to those guys.

[UssuriTiger]

Small remark from Russian classics:


"In (http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/) the first place, what is liberalism, speaking generally, but an attack (whether mistaken or reasonable, is quite another question) upon the existing order of things? Is this so? Yes. Very well. Then my 'fact' consists in this, that Russian liberalism is not an attack upon the existing order of things, but an attack upon the very essence of things themselves--indeed, on the things themselves; not an attack on the Russian order of things, but on Russia itself. My Russian liberal goes so far as to reject Russia; that is, he hates and strikes his own mother. Every misfortune and mishap of the mother-country fills him with mirth, and even with ecstasy. He hates the national customs, Russian history, and everything. If he has a justification, it is that he does not know what he is doing, and believes that his hatred of Russia is the grandest and most profitable kind of liberalism. (You will often find a liberal who is applauded and esteemed by his fellows, but who is in reality the dreariest, blindest, dullest of conservatives, and is not aware of the fact.) This hatred for Russia has been mistaken by some of our 'Russian liberals' for sincere love of their country, and they boast that they see better than their neighbours what real love of one's country should consist in. But of late they have grown, more candid and are ashamed of the expression 'love of country,' and have annihilated the very spirit of the words as something injurious and petty and undignified. This is the truth, and I hold by it; but at the same time it is a phenomenon which has not been repeated at any other time or place; and therefore, though I hold to it as a fact, yet I recognize that it is an accidental phenomenon, and may likely enough pass away. There can be no such thing anywhere else as a liberal who really hates his country; and how is this fact to be explained among us? By my original statement that a Russian liberal is not a Russian liberal--that's the only explanation that I can see."

Dostoevsky. "Idiot".1866.
It sounds like it was written today.

[Lazarou]

On the one hand, I am too lazy to get politically involved. On the other hand, I enjoy burning things and attention. Maybe next time my favorite political party of the color green (http://www.marijuanaparty.com/index.en.php3) loses an election, I will go burn something on the street and get on the local news. Then after I'm done bringing freedom and democracy to Canadians, who have known nothing but the American yoke for their whole existence, I will fulfill the obligation which my other citizenship has placed on my shoulders and storm the Kremlin walls with Berezovsky!

Libertas ab Democratia!

You're like a commie version of Mustamato.

[Insektor]

What is democracy in post-socialist country Bulgaria (where I live)

1. Enormous corruption at every level of the state administration
2. CRIME - people shot on the streets almost every week
3. Free economy? See 1. and 2. (You have to pay the pulic health inspectors, tax inspectors, the local mafia-like structures, etc.
4. Freedom of speech, free media? See 1. and 2. + you cannot publish anything against big companies in the media, because they are big advertisers.
5. Free market??? Example: In most bulgarian cities you cannot stop paying the central heating company - you can stop using the radiators, but still you must pay because you "use" the heat of the tubes, that lead through your own apartment.
6. Private property? See 5.
7. Equal rights? If you are a gipsy you may not pay your electricity bill and nothing will happen, of you are a bulgarian - the electricity will be cut off immediately. 85 % of the crimes in Bulgaria are commited by ethnic gypsies
8. DEMOCRACY???? There is not a single referendum held in Bulgaria since it became a "democratic and free" country. Neither on such major issues like joining NATO or the EU.

How is it like in your country??

[signatory]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4807756.stm

The Belarus government has ordered eight members of a Scandinavian team of unofficial election observers to leave.
The two Swedes and six Danes were part of a monitoring team sent by the unaccredited Danish group Silba.

They were arrested on Tuesday - the first day of early voting ahead of a presidential election officially set for Sunday.

Opposition groups say early voting is an opportunity for the president, Alexander Lukashenko, to rig the poll.

The Swedes, Thomas Ochman and Bjorn Stenstrom - members of Sweden's Liberal Party - were arrested in the western city of Grodno after visiting a polling station there.

Questioned

They are accused of breaking a law which states that conducting opinion polls is banned in Belarus.

Six other representatives from the Friends Across Borders NGO, which includes members of Silba and the Social Democratic Youth of Denmark (DSU) were arrested in Minsk.

[Asheren]

Well polish observers weren't even let in. They also put in jail few peoples that work for our newspapers and other medias.

[BarkingSquirrel]

From the article:

Opposition groups have warned of election fraud and called for peaceful protests on Election Day.Do they employ psychics? How do they know and protest something that hasn't happened yet?The same way the Democrats did here - they perpetrated it.

[Musashi]

[...]If you are a gipsy you may not pay your electricity bill and nothing will happen, of you are a bulgarian - the electricity will be cut off immediately.[...]
Hi.
What is a reason for that?

[NKVD]

What is democracy in post-socialist country Bulgaria (where I live)

1. Enormous corruption at every level of the state administration
2. CRIME - people shot on the streets almost every week
3. Free economy? See 1. and 2. (You have to pay the pulic health inspectors, tax inspectors, the local mafia-like structures, etc.
4. Freedom of speech, free media? See 1. and 2. + you cannot publish anything against big companies in the media, because they are big advertisers.
5. Free market??? Example: In most bulgarian cities you cannot stop paying the central heating company - you can stop using the radiators, but still you must pay because you "use" the heat of the tubes, that lead through your own apartment.
6. Private property? See 5.
7. Equal rights? If you are a gipsy you may not pay your electricity bill and nothing will happen, of you are a bulgarian - the electricity will be cut off immediately. 85 % of the crimes in Bulgaria are commited by ethnic gypsies
8. DEMOCRACY???? There is not a single referendum held in Bulgaria since it became a "democratic and free" country. Neither on such major issues like joining NATO or the EU.

How is it like in your country??

Great post!

When I read this immediately one song by Kreator came to mind:

"Material world paranoia
Corporations rule the earth
Material world paranoia
Enslavery begins at birth" :-(:)

[Asheren]

Hi.
What is a reason for that?

Propably another example of "opressed" minority or using holocaust as a reson to be a$$hole today.

[BarkingSquirrel]

"Material world paranoia
Corporations rule the earth
Material world paranoia
Enslavery begins at birth"
Must not be a good musician if they have to make up words that don't exist.

[Insektor]

Hi.
What is a reason for that?
The reason is that no electricity company official can enter the ghetto without being beaten or even kill. Even the police suffer a lot of damage when trying to enter a gypsy ghetto without the support of gendarmerie and ACV-s.

[Insektor]

Propably another example of "opressed" minority or using holocaust as a reson to be a$$hole today.
Nobody never committed a genocide against other ethnic groups in Bulgaria (Except the atrocities against the bulgarians during the Ottoman rule)

[asch]

Just got to pity you, the sons of slaves not wanting freedom but more whip.
who unchain Ze Troll?

[khukuri]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4807756.stm

The Belarus government has ordered eight members of a Scandinavian team of unofficial election observers to leave.
The two Swedes and six Danes were part of a monitoring team sent by the unaccredited Danish group Silba.

They were arrested on Tuesday - the first day of early voting ahead of a presidential election officially set for Sunday.

Opposition groups say early voting is an opportunity for the president, Alexander Lukashenko, to rig the poll.

The Swedes, Thomas Ochman and Bjorn Stenstrom - members of Sweden's Liberal Party - were arrested in the western city of Grodno after visiting a polling station there.

Questioned

They are accused of breaking a law which states that conducting opinion polls is banned in Belarus.

Six other representatives from the Friends Across Borders NGO, which includes members of Silba and the Social Democratic Youth of Denmark (DSU) were arrested in Minsk.

People from swedens socialdemocratic youth were also arrested, friends of mine tobe more correct.

[Son_Of_Suvorov]

What is democracy in post-socialist country Bulgaria (where I live)

1. Enormous corruption at every level of the state administration
2. CRIME - people shot on the streets almost every week
3. Free economy? See 1. and 2. (You have to pay the pulic health inspectors, tax inspectors, the local mafia-like structures, etc.
4. Freedom of speech, free media? See 1. and 2. + you cannot publish anything against big companies in the media, because they are big advertisers.
5. Free market??? Example: In most bulgarian cities you cannot stop paying the central heating company - you can stop using the radiators, but still you must pay because you "use" the heat of the tubes, that lead through your own apartment.
6. Private property? See 5.
7. Equal rights? If you are a gipsy you may not pay your electricity bill and nothing will happen, of you are a bulgarian - the electricity will be cut off immediately. 85 % of the crimes in Bulgaria are commited by ethnic gypsies
8. DEMOCRACY???? There is not a single referendum held in Bulgaria since it became a "democratic and free" country. Neither on such major issues like joining NATO or the EU.

The problem is that this whole New World Order thing being pushed by the US and EU has nothing to do with freedom or democracy. It is all about propping up a weak, incompetent regime that can be easily manipulated to suit certain countries' foreign interests. No one cares what these elected governments do afterwards - people are just sheep herded to the polls to make their rule seem legitimate. Really, the forthcoming attempted Belarussian "revolution" is using exactly the same means as Lukashenko himself. The problem is however bad Lukashenko may be, the current opposition is worse. They are completely incompetent and will **** over the country if given the government. Lukashenko doesn't seem to want a normal opposition to develop (which is really strange - if he would just choose a decent successor and fake a split, the guy would probably get elected and none of this crap would be happening), and you can forget about the government-funded (!) political NGOs wanting to help a strong opposition, so it is no wonder there is a mess today.


How is it like in your country??

Canuckistan is doing well.


You're like a commie version of Mustamato.

Why do you think I am a Communist? I'm not. I just hate today's liberals/neo-conservatives (face it, the differences between them are trivial - this is why they dislike each other so much). Communism is stupid also, but it's a lot more stupid to foam at the mouth while you're banging on your poor keyboard about how it has no positive qualities whatsoever.


Must not be a good musician if they have to make up words that don't exist.

Shakespeare "invented" over 1700 words.

[CPL Trevoga]

People from swedens socialdemocratic youth were also arrested, friends of mine tobe more correct.

I respect these people, these are real deal.

I think democracy thing is very good idea, it works well. You might be surprised but USSR was invisioned as democratic state, Union of Soviet Socialist Respublics. Soviet - stands for council, agreement, consent, it implies rule of many but it only stayed in the name. I think Russia is remarcable in advances of democracy, it's on the right track.

P.S. I think Canada should be a kind of role model for future Russia, they play hokey, it's cold there, they have built Communism and they have bears. :)