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Belarus violently breaks up opposition protest

Belarussian police fired tear gas, beat up activists and arrested dozens Sunday to thwart a major opposition protest in Minsk against the rule of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. The protesters, responding to calls on a social networking site, sought to show their dissatisfaction with Lukashenko by continuously clapping their hands but police arrested anyone who joined in the applause, young or old. Dozens of people, including photo journalists, were led away into waiting vans from the Independence Day protest while police subdued some demonstrators by kicking or punching them, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported. The police used tear gas to disperse the protesters from their meeting place in the square in front of the Minsk railway station and then chased activists who carried on their applause in side streets. Lukashenko, battling the worst crisis of his 17 years in power amid the crackdown on the opposition and economic pressures, earlier warned the opposition in an Independence Day address not to dream of any uprising against his rule. "Unscrupulous scenarios of colour revolutions, drawn up in the capitals of other countries, are being imposed on us," he said, referring to successful popular uprisings in ex-Soviet states like Georgia and Ukraine. "The aim of these attacks is to sow uncertainty and worry and destroy social harmony. They want to put us on our knees and reduce our independence to zero. "This will not happen!" he said, dressed in a military uniform and accompanied as usual by his young extra-marital son Kolya in similar attire. Some 4,000 goose-stepping soldiers and 160 pieces of hardware filed past Lukashenko in a sometimes bizarre parade that combined military might with incongruous elements like the Belarus national break-dancing team. The opposition had hoped to drown out Lukashenko's speech with their ironic hand-clapping but failed to make any impact amid a massive security presence. Around 20 people were arrested ahead of Lukashenko's speech including Pavel Sverdlov, the correspondent for EU-funded and Poland-based Belarussian radio Evroradio, said Nastasya Loiko of the Vyasna (Spring) rights group. Vyasna later said at least 50 more people were arrested during the evening protest. The main page of the "Revolution through the Social Network" group that organised the protests on a Russian social networking site was blocked, in a clear bid by the authorities to hamper the protests. Concerts took place on the main squares in several Belarussian cities to keep them free of protesters while the opposition said some companies had made employees sign pledges not to take part in the demonstrations. Lukashenko launched a crackdown on the opposition, unprecedented even in his authoritarian rule, after mass protests on the evening of his landslide re-election victory in December. Dozens of opposition activists have already been imprisoned, including his leading rival in the elections, the former diplomat Andrei Sannikov who was jailed for five years. Speaking in neighbouring Lithuania last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Belarus must "release political prisoners and embark on the path of democratic reform". Opposition politician Stanislav Shushkevich, who led Belarus from independence in 1991 until he was ousted in 1994, was detained overnight by border police as he travelled on a train from the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. Shushkevich said he arrived in Minsk early Sunday after his passport was returned by Belarussian border guards who confiscated the document for four hours. A group of students travelling on the same train were also detained. "These are clearly illegal actions undertaken to prevent the protest actions called for on the Internet," Shushkevich, now a strong supporter of the opposition who met with Clinton in Vilnius, told AFP. Compounding the political tensions, Belarus is also battling a mounting economic crisis which last week saw it impose price caps on all consumer goods to fight spiralling inflation and suffer a temporary cut in power supplies from Russia. Belarus' Independence Day now marks the anniversary of the July 3, 1944, re-capture of Minsk by the Red Army from occupying Nazi forces rather than the declaration of sovereignty from the Soviet Union on July 27, 1991.