Elections in Belarus' III

For a down-to-earth view of things in Belarus read this blog in general, and this and this post in particular; the writer, a Belarusian fellow living in the US, explains why he feels that things most likely will not go the route of the OR in Ukraine, but also why this show of opposition is still a good and hopeful thing even if, or when, Lukashenka survives.

Then also, I did not include this in my short list of links to check out for what's happening in Belarus.

Today, he writes this very important bit of info:

March 21st, 2006

Police arrests all those who try to go to the October square with big bags, food and hot drinks. That’s the tacticts they chose: they don’t touch the people on the October square, but they sort of put it under siege, hoping that people will freeze, starve and go home.

So far, there are conflicting reports as for the number of detained activists, but for sure at least 50-100 people were arrested of those who tried to bring food to the protesters. Among them is the chief editor of a well-known Belarusian newspaper “Nasha Niva” Andrej Dynko. One famous theater director and several politicians went missing (probably, also arrested).

About 300-500 people spent the whole night on the square at subzero tempretures, and now their numbers are slowly growing. Many more people are expected to join them in the evening, if they will be able to pass through police blocks.

Finally, some more pictures of the scene on October Square, of what remains of the demonstrations for today.

Update: Just noticed that Leopolis is posting some thoughts about the Belarusian Elections combined with some thoughts on the upcoming Ukrainian ones, and wrote this great comment about dumb leftists who are too ideologically preoccupied to be able to distinguish a horse from a donkey:

While the OSCE declares that the Belarus presidential elections "did not meet the required international standards for free and fair elections," the British Helsinki Human Rights Group offers tired, worn out, ideologically-driven commentary: "Belarus: imperialist intervention in presidential election." BHHRG are bit like creationists. In the face of ample evidence of election fraud and intimidation in Belarus, they would rather talk about Soros, US imperialism and agression, and neo-cons. The Devil manipulated the fossil record to trick us!

Finally, a great article from EDM here.