Belarus president waves iron fist

Published: 11 January 2005 y., Tuesday
Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko has insisted there will be no people's revolutions, whether "rose, orange or banana", in his country. Lukashenko, often described as Europe's last dictator, 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." Lukashenko, who has been in power for a decade, recently won a disputed referendum which allowed him to run for a third term. The vote was held at the same time as parliamentary elections, in which not a single opposition candidate was elected to the house. Subsequent demonstrations in the capital, Minsk, were violently dispersed. In Ukraine, popular protests dubbed the "Orange Revolution" helped bring about a presidential reelection, in which the opposition triumphed. Georgia, meanwhile, recently celebrated the anniversary of its "Rose Revolution" - protests which resulted in the president's resignation.
Šaltinis: BBC NEWS
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