18 opposition activists, mainly youths, were detained in Minsk on the evening of December 28 for participation in solidarity action with the democratic forces of Ukraine after their leader Viktor Yushchenko’s victory in Ukraine`s presidential election, reports Charter97`. (10-JAN-05)

This crackdown on “a harmless and small demonstration” is evidence that “the authorities are scared by the orange revolution in Ukraine,” commented UCP Chairman Anatoly Lebedko. Among the organizers of the demonstration were the Minsk regional organization of the United Civic Party (UCP), the city organization of the UCP youth wing and some other opposition groups.

Arrested before the demonstation
According to Charter97´the protest was planned in the form of the performance. Several dozen people, who had orange elements in their clothes, gathered in Yanka Kupala Park at 6 p.m. to walk to the square in front of the circus building, where they planned to put up an orange tent that had been brought from Kyiv. The demonstration was to end with a march to the building of the Presidential Administration to deliver a pumpkin.

However, plainclothesmen, who outnumbered the demonstrators, started to grab people and load them on arriving buses before the demonstration actually began. High-ranking officers of Internal Affairs Police Department of Minsk executive committee were in command. When arresting people, policemen in plainclothes told: “Go to Ukraine, you are not needed here”. The arrested were taken to the Central district police office. They were released in two hours after writing explanatory notes. It is not the first time when people are detained for support of the “orange revolution” in Ukraine. The Zubr activists have been repeatedly arrested in Minsk for solidarity display of solidarity with the Ukrainians before.

No people´s revolution in Minsk
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has insisted there will be no people`s revolutions, whether “rose, orange or banana”, in his country. According to Charter 97´ Lukashenko,  told a congregation at an Orthodox Christmas mass in Minsk that Belarus would not witness the kind of popular protests in Georgia and Ukraine which saw the opposition rise to power. He said his main task was to assure peace and security “no matter what it costs.”

In Ukraine, popular protests dubbed the “Orange Revolution” helped bring about a presidential re-election, in which the opposition triumphed. Mr Lukashenko, who has been in power for a decade, recently won a disputed referendum which allowed him to run for a third term. Subsequent demonstrations in the capital, Minsk, were violently dispersed.