Election protesters defy Belarus strongman

Hundreds of demonstrators shivered and cheered through the freezing pre-dawn today in the capital of Belarus, trying to keep up momentum in a drive to overturn a landslide election that gave a new term to authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

Meanwhile, Europe’s main election-monitoring organisation and Western governments denounced the election of strongman Lukashenko, in terms ranging from 'seriously flawed' to 'blatantly fraudulent'.

Lukashenko, who over the past 12 years has turned Belarus into a state denounced by the West as Europe’s last dictatorship, said yesterday that his foes had failed to topple him in a foreign-backed “revolution”.

The protests began on Sunday evening as the polls closed, attracting 10,000 people in a demonstration in Minsk that was extraordinary both for its size and for the non-interference of police, who usually act quickly and harshly to break up unauthorised gatherings.

After several elated hours, the demonstrators went home and leaders called on them to come to Oktyrabrskaya Square again last night. They did, but only at about half-strength. The number fell to a few hundred by midnight.

The number was minuscule compared with the crowds of 100,000 or more that jammed the centre of the Ukrainian capital for weeks in December 2004 and that forced a rerun of a flawed presidential election.

The Belarusian opposition was trying to mimic the techniques that worked in their southern neighbour.

Protesters set up a dozen tents and locked arms in a human chain guarding the tiny encampment.

Others tried to bring in the blankets, food and hot beverages that help them endure a round-the-clock vigil in below-freezing temperatures, but were often detained by police.

Olena Savina, a 21-year-old journalism student was bringing bread, sausages and rugs to sleep on to the square when police took her away for about an hour and warned her she would have problems at school.

“I believe that the repression will not stop us. I believe that there will be more and more of us,” she said when she returned, minus her suplies.

This is what happened in Ukraine and in the 2003 “Rose Revolution” in Georgia, as more and more came to protests when they saw police were not interfering.

The opposite phenomenon in Belarus may reflect fears that authorities are simply playing a high-tension waiting game before launching a truncheon-swinging dispersal.

The protesters broke into periodic cheers throughout the night, but the cold was clearly enervating them, despite stirring words from their leaders.

“The people want to stay until victory, and I’m with them,” said Alexander Milinkevich, the main opposition candidate, who has branded Lukashenko an “illegal, illegitimate president” and called for a new vote.

International observers said the vote fell short of democratic standards. Europe’s main human rights organisation said it was a “farce” and the US called for a new election.

However, the leverage of the international community seemed limited and the diminished size of the crowd suggested the opposition was losing momentum.

Milinkevich visited the makeshift tent camp, taking sips of tea from a cup he was offered and saying: “We’re together.” He later said his two sons had been detained by police for about an hour on their way to pick up food for the protest.

As the rally was about to begin, busloads of riot police streamed into Karl Marx Street near the square. Security forces in helmets and camouflage uniforms disembarked from the buses, jogged into neighbourhood courtyards and prevented people from walking toward the square.

On the square, a 45-year-old woman who gave her name only as Irina, said she was scared about the prospect of bloody police action, but “if Lukashenko stays in power, it will be even worse”.

Milinkevich’s appeal for a repeat vote was backed by the US. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the election was flawed by a “climate of fear” and hinted that penalties such as travel restrictions “are things we will look at”.

“We support the call for a new election,” McClellan said. “The US will continue to stand with the people of Belarus.”

By contrast, Russian president Vladimir Putin congratulated Lukashenko in a telegram and said the results would help strengthen the alliance of the two ex-Soviet nations.

The chief electoral official said Monday that Lukashenko, who has ruled with an iron fist since 1994, won a “convincing victory” with 82.6% of the votes, a number Milinkevich called “monstrously inflated”.

Lukashenko scorned the opposition, saying voters had shown “who’s the boss” in Belarus. “The revolution that was talked about so much … has failed,” he told a nationally televised news conference.

He said Sunday’s protest leaders were in the pay of Western ambassadors and claimed there was no crackdown because the opposition was weak.