Belarus police raid home of government critics

Minsk - Belorussian police on Wednesday raided the home of a high-profile government critic, and the offices of a human rights organization. Law enforcers entered the home of Andrei Sannikov, an outspoken opponent of authoritarian President Aleksander Lukashenko, and confiscated computer discs and books before leaving.

Twelve police officers also cordoned off and searched the editorial offices of the Minsk-based human rights group Charter 97, spokesman from the organization said.

Sannikov has announced plans to oppose Lukashenko in presidential elections scheduled in 2011.

"The regime is terrified of losing power. These coercive measures show the true face of leadership in Minsk - and not its supposedly moderate course toward the West," he said.

The Lukashenko regime in recent months has intensified efforts to control Internet access, and state monitoring of government critics, in a ramp-up to the upcoming elections, observers said.

A former collective farm boss, Lukashenko has repeatedly been called "the last dictator in Europe," by western critics.

Lukashenko has justified his tight control of Belorussian society as necessary to protect the former Soviet republic's economy from takeover by international capital, and to maintain living standards of average Belorussians.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314555,belarus-police-raid-home-of-government-critics.html.