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March 05, 2006
"Elections" in Belarus
In the run-up to the elections on March 19th we can expect to be saturated with 'last dictatorship in Europe' style propaganda about Belarus- put about by EU fanatics and supporters of The Empire.
The BBC:
I have seen two very different pictures of Belarus here
this week. The first - on a TV screen, painted in pomp and ceremony,
depicting Belarus as a haven of stability with a leader adored by the
nation. And a second Belarus - an unofficial one, not intended for live
broadcast and public consumption; a country where political rivals are
beaten and detained by police.
br23 blog:
* Journalists and Kazulin’s supporters followed the blue van to the police station.
* Policemen first blocked the police station, and after a little while they suddenly changed their plans: they got out and started beating up and arresting all those people that congregated in front of the police station.
* Several journalists were badly beaten (faces beaten to a pulp; broken ribs, head concussions — all documented). About 20 people were dragged into the police station. The beatings were carried out by people who were not even wearing police uniforms, most of them were clad in black leather jackets.
* At this moment, at about 10:45 Minsk time, one of the photo journalists (either from Associated Press or Reuters) with a big photo camera, charged for his car, probably to avoid being arrested and to send the footage to the agency as soon as possible. Several people in leather jackets tried to stop him, but he managed to get into his car and pressed gas. At this moment one of those people pulled out a gun and made three shots at the car as it was speeding away (!!!)
"EU fanatics and supporters of The Empire."
March 5, 2006 in Politics | Permalink
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Comments
What about the arrests of the Zubr student activists in Belarus ?
Posted by: Watching Them, Watching Us | Mar 5, 2006 1:34:31 PM
Someone on Clark's blog highlighted a particularly vicious fisking by your good self as an example of what he should be doing to Oliver Kamm (Clark has been promising a Kamm-fisk for ages, but keeps putting it off with increasingly feeble excuses, which rather suggests that the real one is "I'm not clever enough").
But apparently you made the dreadful tactical error of calling Clark a "gobshite" in the very first sentence, which in Clark's strange world seems to automatically invalidate the rest of your case against him. No matter that the rest of said case proved beyond any possible doubt that the term was not only eminently justified but actually quite restrained.
More recently, Clark has been bigging up "the consistently excellent" John Laughland and the "widely respected" British Helsinki Human Rights Group - both of whom share his view that we don't have anything like enough quasi-Communist dictatorships.
Posted by: Cheeky Bob | Mar 5, 2006 7:47:39 PM
I hold no brief for either Clark or Belarus, but the message of your post appears to be:
"You know Neil Clark said that we would let loads of reports saying the Belarussian elections were fixed? Well I just read a report saying that the Belarussian elections really _were_ fixed!"
Tim adds: Indeed. The other major difference being "by whom".
Posted by: dsquared | Mar 5, 2006 8:01:14 PM
As an EU fanatic, it will come as no surprise to you that I support the contention that Lukashenko is a dictator.
Posted by: EU Serf | Mar 6, 2006 11:09:21 AM
The Central Belarussian Election Committee website offers a unique model for Belarussian election. Try to vote on-line: whoever you vote for, you will only help Mr. Lukashenko.
Posted by: Yan Kran | Mar 16, 2006 2:38:31 PM
