Lukashenka to the West: Stay Out of My Country
World media report on today’s dramatic events. Ron Popeski of Reuters writes:
- Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday defiantly told his Western critics to stay out of his country’s affairs, while an opposition rival for the presidency was beaten by security forces and detained.
Lukashenko, who faces tougher Western sanctions if a March 19 election which he is heavily favoured to win is denounced as unfair, vowed to take whatever steps were necessary to prevent Western-inspired subversion of his administration.
“It is not for (the West) to teach us about human rights. Let them deal with their own affairs. They have plunged the entire Middle East into blood. We see your democracy soaked in blood,” he declared in a speech of more than three hours.
Speaking a day after the state security service, called the KGB, said it had thwarted an attempt to seize power, Lukashenko told 2,500 delegates at the “Belarussian National Congress” that opposition activists should be drafted into the army.
“And if they don’t go, let them answer to the law. They all dodged military service in their time,” he said.
