Activists detained at Belarus protest rally

Police in Belarus detained at least three opposition activists and prevented dozens more from protesting against the jailing of opposition leaders in a rare rally in the capital.

Police detained the activists on Minsk’s central Oktyabrskaya square as dozens came there with portraits of two presidential candidates and activists who have been jailed since December.

Protesters shouted: “Gaddafi for today, Lukashenko tomorrow!”

Police did not use violence to disperse the rally, but they took away a megaphone and the portraits of opposition leaders from the protesters, and mingled in their group, preventing them from standing together.

City authorities have banned political rallies in most of Minsk’s central streets and squares.

Crackdown on dissent in the ex-Soviet nation intensified in December last year after police violently broke up a rally of 700 people marching in central Minsk against what they believed was a rigged victory for President Alexander Lukashenko.

Dozens of people were arrested and are still in jail, including presidential candidates Andrei Sannikov and Nikolai Statkevich.

People who came to the Oktyabrskaya square said they had come out to protest against Mr Lukashenko’s increasingly totalitarian rule.

“Lukashenko is scared of an outburst of dissatisfaction, and so he cracks down on any signs of disagreement with his policies,” said Dmitry Yutsevich, a 25-year-old unemployed Minsk resident.