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Belarus quashes protest

Opposition leader vows to continue fight

A woman being detained by a police officer on the Oktyabrskaya Square in Minsk on Friday. — PHOTO: AP

Minsk: Belarus quashed an unprecedented mass protest against President Alexander Lukashenko here on Friday, smashing a tent camp, arresting hundreds of Opposition supporters and triggering an angry response from the West.

About 100 black-helmeted riot police swooped on October Square in central Minsk in the dead of night and carried or herded protesters into green trucks with barred windows. There was no violence or resistance.

Colonel Yury Podobed, who headed the operation, was quoted by Moscow Echo radio saying: ``The revolution is over.''

But top Opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich vowed to continue his fight to have Mr. Lukashenko's landslide re-election victory last Sunday annulled.

He accused the Government of using ``the language of repression'' and said a rally planned for Saturday would go ahead.

The sweep brought sharp condemnation from the European Union, whose leaders agreed at a summit in Brussels to widen sanctions on the regime. Without spelling out the nature of the measures, the Austrian E.U. presidency said they would broaden restrictions beyond the six visa bans now in place on Belarus officials.

The summit ``decided to take restrictive measures against those responsible for violations of international electoral standards, including President Lukashenko,'' Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said.

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