The United States and Europe said Friday that they would impose sanctions against President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus and other top officials for cracking down on a peaceful protest over his re-election, which was widely seen as a sham.Lukashenko, described as the last dictator in Europe, sent his thugs to clear out the main square in Minsk of opposition protestors who had been camping out there. Apparently the reporters had braved the cold with them, and gave a differing account than the state run media:
A propaganda campaign was also under way. After the protest was broken up, state television showed images of a square littered with alcohol containers and pornography, along with syringes and packets of white powder, and suggested that the camp was simply a drug-fueled orgy."Of course it is easier to carry out different sexual experiments on psychologically unstable youth," the news broadcaster said. October Square, he said, was turned by the demonstrators into "an ugly, criminal tumor on Minsk's body."
But journalists for The New York Times passed all four nights night on the square and saw no alcohol, drugs or pornographic materials inside the camp. Minutes after the riot police departed early Friday, alcohol bottles and pornography were in abundance, as if they had been planted.
At the prison walls, the remaining opposition members said they were undeterred.
Hopefully the NY Times' credibility on this story, at least, will hold up. More on the story here from Marathon Pundit.
UPDATE: Police arrested an opposition leader and his family at today's demonstration. CBC here.
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