Hundreds of Belarusian opposition activists were still in jail yesterday, and the location of one of their top leaders remained unknown one day after mass crackdowns by the government.
The bulk of the detainees were, according to eyewitnesses, being transported to the infamous Uruchie prison outside Minsk, a detention facility run by the Belarusian KGB, and site of the disappearance of opposition activists in previous years.
Aleksandr Kozulin, the No. 2 man in Belarus' opposition movement against authoritarian President Aleksander Lukashenko, was not present in any known prison facility in the Minsk region, his wife told reporters.
PHOTO: AP
"In every prison that we have checked we have been told that Kozulin is not there," an opposition official told the Belapan news agency.
The Minsk prison system reportedly was overwhelmed by the need to process hundreds of detainees. Milinkevich estimated the number of people arrested in a Saturday melee fought through the streets of the Belarusian capital as "over 1,000."
Lukashenko on Saturday ordered police to use force to break up the protests, begun one week ago after the former collective farm boss was re-elected president in a vote condemned by the international community as fraudulent.
PHOTO: AFP
Meanwhile, Milinkevich yesterday called for a temporary halt to protests. He told Russia's Itar-Tass news agency on Saturday that the opposition hoped to mobilize at least 200,000 for fresh protests, but this would require a "strong emotional impulse."
Witnesses said police arrested hundreds of people, including Kozulin, as they charged an anti-government rally in Minsk on Saturday, using clubs and smoke grenades.
Police combed downtown Minsk for hours for opponents of Lukaschenko. Several were cornered and beaten at a department store as customers looked on, then dragged to a police van.
The assault took place near the Opera Theatre building, where demonstrators gathered following a failed attempt to reach central October Square.
The violence ended six days of peaceful anti-government demonstrations, begun last Sunday after Lukashenko won re-election in a poll the West has called fraudulent.
Initial reports that Milinkevich was among those arrested turned out to be false. In his remarks to Itar-Tass late on Saturday, Milinkevich accused the police of using disproportionate force.
The US State Department condemned the crackdown and demanded that Belarusian authorities release all arrested activists, saying they were exercising legitimate democratic rights.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also urged the release of all protestors and specifically cited Kozulin.
Kozulin was beaten by police before submitting to detention and being hauled off, witnesses said.
He was leading an estimated 1,500 demonstrators to a Minsk jail in what he said was an attempt to free previously arrested opposition activists. Police charged the crowd in order to stop its movement, witnesses said.
Belarusian Interior Minister Vladimir Naumov defended the crackdown, claiming that Kozulin had called for Lukashenko's violent overthrow.
Naumov said eight police officers and one demonstrator were injured.
Milinkevich, the loser in Sun-day's lopsided election contest, had called for the demonstration to mark a short-lived Belarusian republic founded in March 1918. Lukashenko banned rallies on the day after he came to power in 1994.
Up to 4,000 anti-government protestors had gathered in central Minsk before the police assault. Pedestrians and bystanders at some locations showed support to the demonstrators, shouting "Fascists" as the police made arrests.
The US and the EU after the election announced plans to sanction the Lukashenko regime by closing some foreign bank accounts owned by Belarusian officials, and by widening a travel ban to Western countries by the Lukashenko entourage.
US President George Bush in a statement declared that he "stands by the Belarusian people ... in their fight for democracy."
Lukashenko has laughed off the sanction threats, saying he owns no foreign bank accounts, and that he and his subordinates have no particular interest in travelling to the US or the EU.
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
‘NO INTEGRITY’: The chief judge expressed concern over how the sentence would be perceived given that military detention is believed to be easier than civilian prison A military court yesterday sentenced a New Zealand soldier to two years’ detention for attempting to spy for a foreign power. The soldier, whose name has been suppressed, admitted to attempted espionage, accessing a computer system for a dishonest purpose and knowingly possessing an objectionable publication. He was ordered into military detention at Burnham Military Camp near Christchurch and would be dismissed from the New Zealand Defence Force at the end of his sentence. His admission and its acceptance by the court marked the first spying conviction in New Zealand’s history. The soldier would be paid at half his previous rate until his dismissal