Belarusians sharpen teeth in Vilnius

  • 2001-02-01
  • Nick Coleman
RIGA - Opponents of Belarus' autocratic regime gathered in Vilnius this week for seminars on how to overthrow their government by non-violent means.

The opposition is gearing up to oust Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in the presidential elections expected next autumn, said Semyon Sharetsky, the leader of Belarus' last internationally recognized Parliament.

Lithuania meanwhile resumed electricity supplies to Belarus, restarting a reactor at the Ignalina nuclear power station after advance payment for about a month's supply was made by a company registered in Switzerland.

The seminars were intended to help the opposition develop strategies for civil disobedience and non-violent struggle, said former Lithuanian MP and conference organizer Audrius Butkevicius of the Citizens' Defense Support Fund, a non-governmental organization which hosted the event.

Leading the seminars were two members of the U.S.-based Einstein Institute, Gene Sharp and Peter Ackerman. The institute, which promotes non-violent means of resistance to undemocratic rule in many countries, assisted in the overthrow of Soviet rule in the Baltic countries 10 years ago.

Bringing together the seemingly fragmented campaign against Lukashenko's rule was one of the conference's aims, said Butkevicius, who is also a former Lithuanian defense minister.

"The Belarusian opposition knows only in general how to overcome the government," he said.

"But it's necessary to have principles and a strategy, to know how to organize operational tactics and concrete activities. A lack of unity is one of the opposition's problems. They can learn how to act together to bring about a democratically elected Parliament, and how not to fight among themselves."

Sharetsky told reporters on Jan. 29 that preparations were underway for the autumn presidential election despite the "dictatorial and illegal" regime's grip on the media.

"Probably they will try to steal the elections," he told the Baltic News Service. "Our goal is democratic elections. If they are democratic, an opposition victory is guaranteed."

Sharetsky, who now lives in Lithuania, was chairman of the last internationally recognized Belarusian Parliament, which Lukashenko dissolved in 1996.

The Belarusian Embassy in Vilnius on Jan. 26 circulated a statement expressing its indignation at the event.

The Lithuanian government would not comment on the conference, said Davidas Matulionis, foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Rolandas Paksas. "Everyone has the right to organize such seminars," he said.

Lithuania's policy of pragmatic dialogue with Belarus remains unchanged, he added.

"We have to cooperate with Belarus at an economic level. We have a lot of common projects and we couldn't cut our extensive trade links for political reasons. But we support all the positions on Belarus taken by the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe."

Recently, opposition Lithuanian Social Democratic MPs have formed a group to establish ties with Lukashenko's hand-picked Parliament, although an older group still exists to support the pre-1996 Parliament.

Belarus has come to rely heavily on Lithuanian electricity supplies. Electricity exports stopped on Dec. 31 due to Belarus' failure to pay its debts to the Lithuanian energy company but were resumed Jan. 29.

Belarus owes the company $50 million in cash and goods, said Ona Junkeviciene, adviser to the prime minister on restructuring and privatization issues.

Supplies were resumed after a company registered in Switzerland under the name of ACOTRA paid in advance for a fixed amount of electricity to be generated over the course of the next month.

Paksas and the Cabinet are negotiating with Belarus for payment of the outstanding debt, said Junkeviciene, a process she described as "not easy." The government is also looking for another intermediary company to ensure electricity exports in the long term, she said.

The first reactor at Lithuania's aging nuclear power plant near Ignalina was put in reserve when the exports were stopped, but is now back in operation. It is to be the first of the two reactors to be decommissioned, probably in 2005.