'Я буду белым руским в Minsk!' ... ("I Am A White Rusian In Minsk!)

"Belarus' opposition called for a mass rally in a new show of force against the regime of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko as the West vowed to slap sanctions on its leadership.

Top opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich, who is contesting the results of last Sunday's presidential vote which Lukashenko officially won, said that if the October Square rally was blocked, "we will meet somewhere else."

The demonstration coincides with an unofficial Freedom Day, celebrating a short-lived declaration of [Belarusian] independence from Russia in 1918." ...

Agence France Presse "Belarus opposition calls mass protest as EU, US vow sanctions" March 24, 2006. 23:02

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"The revolution is over"

-- Belarusian Colonel Yury Podobed, who headed the police operation, was quoted by Moscow Echo radio as saying, on March 24, 2006.

"This authoritarian government ... has never been able to maintain a dialogue with the society. It knows only the language of violence and lies, and this is why its power is bankrupt."

-- Belarusian Democratic Opposition Candidate Alexander Milinkevich, on March 24, 2006.

"This is a fight of good against evil"

-- Polish Foreign Minister Stefan Meller, announcing, on March 24, 2006, new European Union sanctions against the leaders of the Lukashenka regime slated to go into effect on April 10, 2006.

... "Two thousand years ago, two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was "civis Romanus sum." Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a 'Berliner'")

-- American President John F. Kennedy, speaking in an earlier divided Europe, on 26 June 1963.


















March 24 [and 25], 2006. Minsk, Belarus, Europe.

Photo credit: Agence France Presse photographic corps. With thanks.