Belorussian president strikes back at critics

Fri, 21 Jan 2011

Minsk/Kiev - Belarus's authoritarian president, Aleksander Lukashenko, lashed out at his critics as was sworn in for a fourth term in office Friday.

"We will protect our security and stability from threats, whether they come from inside the country or outside," he said.

"I would like to remind people who do not wish Belarus well one of our old folk sayings: 'Don't start a fire at your neighbor's house. It might just spread to yours'," he said.

European Union diplomats stayed away from the inauguration to protest the December 19 vote, which they believe was rigged in Lukashenko's favor, as well as subsequent crackdowns on the opposition. Some of them gathered instead in Lithuania for a series of EU meetings.

The ambassadors of Poland, Germany, Lithuania and nine other EU nations with legations in the capital Minsk had left Belarus on Thursday.

Also absent from Friday's ceremony were the ambassadors of the United States and Ukraine, the Belapan news agency reported.

Lukashenko described his election victory as a matter of life and death.

"It wasn't a question of electing a president," he said. "In reality the fate of our country was being decided, whether to be independent and strong or to fall into slave-like dependency," he said Friday.

More than 20,000 Belorussians took to the streets to protest Lukashenko's victory on election day. Police used force to break up the demonstrations, arresting more than 600 people.

A wide-ranging crackdown against government opponents has continued through January, with police raiding opposition homes and offices almost daily. Thirty-three opposition leaders and journalists are now awaiting trial in connection with the December demonstrations.

International groups, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), have been virtually unanimous in their criticism of the election and the continuing crackdowns.

Lukashenko has ordered the OSCE to close its office in Belarus and has threatened the EU with sanctions of his own.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/363524,president-strikes-back-critics.html.