by Joseph W
BBC News reports on the recent uprising in Minsk, controversy about the way the election was carried out, and the arrest of six hundred protesters.
Meanwhile, international observer Israel Shamir says of the uprising in Minsk:
“It was such a minor thing by today’s standards, I think that it’s not even worth consideration. This is not Tiananmen Square. It is not a crackdown on demonstrators that we see in Israel. It’s not worth creating “media-excuse.” Tehran even tougher action. As an example, in Tehran, CIA agent gunned down in a live girl to make out of this great epic, the girl died at the hands of torturers. There were no such incidents, and the police took action commensurate with it. Nothing like a giant was not. This is a minor event, which is comparable in scale with riot fans lost the match. “
Shamir is interviewed here about Wikileaks and Belarus.
Belarus President Lukachenko met with Israel Shamir this week.
Like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, President Lukachenko is trying to spin the election unrest as deliberate Western antagonism, portraying pro-democratic protesters as somehow traitorous and loyal to America.
Radio Free Europe reports:
At a press conference today, during which the hardline ruler voiced no remorse for ordering police to beat protesters during post-election demonstrations, Lukashenka announced the upcoming publication of classified documents that he says will demonstrate the nature of interactions between the Belarusian opposition and the West.
Russian news agencies quoted him as saying, “We’re simply going to publish certain documents. We’ll see how those who are published on the Belarusian WikiLeaks site — the supporters [of the opposition] and those who are working behind the scenes — react to this.”
“We will publish all the documents that should be classified in the archives as ‘secret.’ These are historically important events,” he said.
Ironic that a regime which has done so much to curb freedom on the internet is using “leaking” to further its own agenda.
