Lukashenko warns against Belarus 'revolution' plot

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko warned his opponents Sunday against considering any uprising against his rule as the military staged a Soviet-style show of force in an Independence Day parade.
The opposition failed to perform any significant protest during Lukashenko's speech but have defiantly called for a "silent" evening demonstration in Minsk, even though past events have been broken up by the security forces.
Almost 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.
But Lukashenko, dressed in a military uniform and accompanied, as usual, by his young extra-marital son Kolya in similar attire, delivered an icily serious message to the opposition.
"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 out independence to zero. This will not happen!"
The Internet-based opposition group "Revolution through the Social Network" has vowed to disrupt Lukashenko's speech with mass clapping and hold two actions in the evening to protest against his crackdown on critics.
But amid a vast security presence, the opposition failed to disturb the speech which went ahead without incident, an AFP correspondent said. The group's main page on a Russian social networking site was blocked in what the opposition said was a clear bid by the authorities to thwart their protests.
"The authorities are making a titanic effort to break the wave of civil protests," wrote opposition website Charter 97. Lukashenko launched a crackdown on the opposition, unprecedented even in the 17 years of his authoritarian rule, after mass protests on the evening of his landslide December re-election victory. 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". 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.
Meanwhile, 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.