Belarus Parliament Denounces Foreign Pressure

Protesters in Belarus are often arrested or face violent treatment from police Minsk, 29 April 2005 (RFE/RL) -- The Belarusian Parliament today adopted a statement denouncing what it called "political pressure" being directed at Minsk from foreign countries.

Legislator Vadim Popov says the statement was adopted in response to what he described as "the heaviest political, diplomatic and media pressure" against Belarus by several foreign states.

The adopted statement comes about a week after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's government as "the last dictatorship in Europe."

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili recently said he believes Belarus will be the next ex-Soviet state to see the kind of democratic revolutions that happened in Georgia and Ukraine.

(RFE/RL, Interfax)