BELARUS LESSON: FREEDOM MARCH AS WARNING

An event occurred in Minsk on October 17 that vividly shows what can happen in a country whose citizens accept the role of apathetic objects of political techniques based on actively brandishing the pie-in- the-sky carrot. The Day has already repeatedly warned what the Russian election scenario (reinforced lately with a Belarusian accent), now being played up by the government, entails. The freedom march in Minsk makes us think that if the Ukrainians fail to make a choice without Kuchma and Communists' Ukraine will have every chance to borrow “all the best” from the Russian, Belarusian, and, incidentally, Bulgarian options: an inadequate president, a degrading economy being finally eaten up by politically connected clans, and a stick for the opposition and the media.

Up to 20,000 people took part in the freedom march, the most massive protest action of the Belarusian opposition in the last several years. The procession ended in clashes as a result of which dozens of demonstrators suffered from police truncheons, and seven riot policemen and internal security soldiers were wounded (three were hospitalized) after being hit by cobblestones.

“I revere these schoolchildren who were fighting back the fully- equipped riot police who struck in the back of the retreating column of demonstrators,” said Vyacheslav Syvchyk, one of eighteen freedom march spokesmen.

State-run television, maligning the “extremists” and airing footage of street clashes, claims that the demonstrators were bribed and want to wreck the union treaty with Russia, the only supplier of fuel to heat the homes of Belarus's citizens.

“The main aim of this action is to protest against the treaty, now in the making, on a united state with Russia, and against human rights and freedoms violations in Belarus,” said Yuri Khodko, a leader of the Belarus Popular Front (BPF).

The text of draft union treaty was burned at the Sunday rally to the approving whistles of rally participants. The mass demonstration under the slogan “To Europe without Lukashenka” was also intended to become a weighty argument in the future dialogue, under the aegis of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), between the authorities and the opposition. The West is putting the following conditions to Alyaksandr Lukashenka: amend the election law, transfer some powers to the future Parliament, the freedom of speech, and amnesty to political opponents.

OSCE had already stated on the eve of the march that negotiations between the government and opposition are impossible under the conditions of reprisals and fear in a country where the President's opponents either vanish or wind up in custody.

Mikhail Sazonov, who aids the President in preparing both the negotiating process and the union treaty with Russia, assured the West that after the freedom march the government was still striving for a dialogue with it. “But the police will be quite strict. At least, we are not going to cede power,” Mr. Sazonov said on Belarus TV.

In the conditions of a rising tension in the country, Mr. Lukashenka now seems to have Moscow as his only ally.

Neighboring Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia are unequivocally on the West's side and demand change in the political climate in the country. Official Ukraine, not so much concerned about the rights of Belarusians as tired of the expressive Belarusian leader, seems to have matured enough to shut still tighter the door to Mr. Lukashenka. Yet, there are still signs of “Belarusian election techniques” and assaults on political opponents and the opposition media. As to the information about Leonid Kuchma meeting Semen Sharetsky, head of the Parliament dissolved by Mr. Lukashenka (he visited Kyiv the other day), our President's press secretary Martynenko denied it in an interview with Interfax on October 18.