EU urges Belarus to free march leader

The EU called on its European partners today to protest at Belarusian violence against demonstrators and the detention of opposition leader Alexander Kozulin.

Austria, which holds the EU presidency, said it was “appalled by the violence used against demonstrators by the Belarusian authorities”.

It also demanded the immediate release of Kozulin and other opposition members, and called for international solidarity.

Austria “urges the international partners of the EU, and in particular Belarus’ other neighbours, to follow the same approach towards Belarus”.

Human rights group Vasnya said more than 100 people were detained on Saturday in connection with a series of protest marches.

Kozulin was detained on Saturday as protesters heeded his call to march to a jail that was holding others who were detained during an unprecedented week of daily protests in the tightly controlled ex-Soviet republic.

Initial reports indicated Kozulin may have been beaten, but his wife Irina said “the condition of his health is OK”.

The protests were set off by the March 19 elections that gave authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko a third term. The opposition contends the voting was fraudulent and international observers said the elections fell far short of democratic norms, with problems including harassment of opposition candidates and distorted coverage by state-dominated mass media.

Kozulin, who was one of three candidates running against Lukashenko, appears less popular among opposition forces than Alexander Milinkevich, who was the main candidate opposing Lukashenko.

Milinkevich on Saturday disapproved of Kozulin’s call for the march to the jail, saying it unnecessarily provoked police.

Today, without mentioning him by name, he said: “Each politician must conduct predictable, foreseeable policies.”

Earlier about 80 pro-Lukashenko youth activists picketed the US Embassy in Minsk for about an hour, shouting “Hands off Belarus”. Russian news agencies said protesters also picketed Poland’s Embassy.

Lukashenko and other officials contend the US and Western European countries are giving financial and moral support to opposition groups with the aim of provoking mass protests like those in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan - ex-Soviet republics like Belarus – that helped bring opposition leaders to power after elections regarded as fraudulent.