Lukashenko says KGB should do more against political dissent :: Charter'97 :: News

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko vowed Jan. 25 to retain tight control over the KGB, saying the widely feared security agency should do more to monitor political dissent in comments that caused alarm from rights groups.

Human rights activists warned that the move by Lukashenko signaled plans for a further crackdown against opposition groups in the former Soviet republic.

Lukashenko vowed during a speech to the KGB leadership in the Belarusian capital never to turn the agency over to civilian oversight. He said security agencies would answer to him alone, and that the KGB had responsibilities above and beyond that of normal law enforcement organs.

"You should work where neither the police, nor prosecutors, nor other agencies or enforcement authorities are able to work," Lukashenko said.

Last week, Lukashenko named Maj. Gen. Stepan Sukhorenko as the new head of the KGB, replacing Lt. Gen. Leonid Yerin who was sacked in November after he met with an opposition leader at KGB headquarters.

Sergei Anisko, an activist with the Belrusian Helsinki Committee, said the Jan. 25 announcement could herald a new crackdown on the opposition.

"Inasmuch as this concerns specific KGB divisions responsible for political surveillance, it follows that we can expect stepped-up pressure by the KGB on opposition parties ... their leaders and, in general, all dissidents in the country," Anisko said.

Lukashenko`s comments come in the wake of last month`s tumultuous "Orange Revolution" protests in neighboring Ukraine, which helped catapult opposition leader Viktor Yuschenko to power. Lukashenko and leaders from other former Soviet republics have reacted nervously to the Orange Revolution as well as to the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia, which also saw an opposition activist - Mikhail Saakashvili - vaulted to the presidency.

Earlier this month, Lukashenko said the Ukrainian and Georgian upheavals would have little effect on Belarus. "There will not be any rose, orange or banana revolutions in our country," he said.

During his 10 years in power, Lukashenko has made Belarus into one of Europe`s most repressive societies, bringing the media under a virtual state monopoly and leading the country into virtual international isolation. Many opposition leaders are either sitting in jail or have disappeared.

A referendum in October gave Lukashenko permission to stay on indefinitely as president by removing term limits. The vote was widely condemned as rigged, and prompted days of protests by opposition parties and youth activists. The former KGB chief Yerin held an hourlong meeting with leaders of the opposition Youth Front at KGB headquarters in Minsk amid the protests.