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Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2001 12:43:48 EST
Belarus leader Lukashenko blasts OSCE
By Larisa Sayenko
MINSK, Jan 28 (Reuters) - President Alexander Lukashenko accused the OSCE
mission in Minsk of plotting with the opposition against him ahead of autumn
presidential elections.
In an interview broadcast late on Saturday, Lukashenko dismissed talk of a
popular revolution in Belarus similar to that which overthrew Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic in October following contested presidential
elections.
Lukashenko, criticised by the West for authoritarian rule, has frequently
clashed with the Minsk-based mission of the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, and last November raised the prospect of asking it to
quit Belarus.
"Under the guise of observers they (the West) want to found a corps of
fighters on the principle of distributing bread by day and taking their
weapons out from under their beds at night," he said.
"They are forming an opposition here to Lukashenko under our very noses," he
said.
Hans-Georg Wiek, head of the OSCE advisory and monitoring group in Belarus,
said Lukashenko had made similar allegations to parliament last month.
"We are in favour of democratic procedures and institutions, but the result
is something for the population to decide in free and fair elections," he
told Reuters. Last October, the OSCE sharply criticised parliamentary polls
as failing to meet international standards.
MINSK LEADER SHUNNED BY WEST
Lukashenko, who won office in 1994, has been largely shunned by the West
since a controversial 1996 referendum after which he expanded his powers,
extended his term in office by two years and dissolved parliament.
The OSCE plans to invite 14,000 observers to Belarus for presidential
elections expected in September but which the opposition fear could be
rigged in Lukashenko's favour.
In Saturday's television interview Lukashenko expressed outrage at what he
said were suggestions by Western observers that Belarus could see massive
street protests similar to those which forced Milosevic to recognise the
election victory of Yugoslav opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica.
"I started to react when Western observers talked of a Kostunica scenario,
that soon Belarus will go the way of the Balkans. What, am I to wait until
they start bombing us with so-called depleted uranium?," he said.
Munitions tipped with the heavy metal were widely used during NATO's air
campaign in Yugoslavia in 1999, and some blame them for a higher than normal
incidence of leukemia among Western peacekeepers. NATO denies the ammunition
causes cancer. (Additional reporting by Jon Boyle)
06:10 01-28-01
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