Protests in Minsk over disputed result of Belarus election

Neeka's Backlog alerted me to the demonstrations currently taking place in Minsk in protest at the allegedly rigged re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko in last Sunday's election. Thru Neeka's Backlog there is also a link to the minsk_news community where l_u_f_t has posted a series of excellent photographs about what is going on there.

The BBC report on current events in Belarus is here.

Are we beginning to see a repeat of Ukraine's 'Orange Revolution'? Difficult to say at this stage, but it seems that the old certainties that allowed dictatorial Communist regimes to maintain themselves in power for so long in so many countries of Eastern Europe may be breaking down in yet another country. One can but hope.

The largely domestic, and in some ways quite 'petty' concerns of many in the comfortably wealthy nations of the world (such as much of Europe, North America and various other countries such as Japan and Australia, etc), often blind us to the day-to-day struggles which people in less fortunate nations have to face. Whatever develops in Belarus, I hope that violence will not form too large a part of it and I hope, too, that President Alexander Lukashenko may soon realise that the game is up and not unleash his security forces to quash dissent.

UPDATE: (Sunday 26MAR06 00.28 GMT) Lukashenko is playing hardball with the protesters. It now looks as if this whole situation could get out of control and become quite ugly.