Belarus's liberal opposition, its four-day protest snuffed out by police, defied a ban and called a new rally on Saturday to denounce what it calls the rigged re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko.Alexander Milinkevich, defeated opposition candidate in the March 19 poll, urged supporters to mass "no matter what" from 1000 GMT in October Square -- site of the tent camp cleared away by police in the early hours of Friday. If authorities sealed off the square, he said, protesters would move to a different location which he refused to disclose.
Demonstrators are demanding a re-run of the poll which handed Lukashenko five more years in power in the ex-Soviet state that he rules with an iron grip. The official tally gave him 83 percent to just 6 for Milinkevich.
It was not immediately clear what support Milinkevich could expect for Saturday's demonstration, which will also mark the independence day of a short-lived Belarussian republic in 1918. Stiff legislation against illegal assembly and unrelenting police action had kept opposition activity to a minimum in recent months. Most protests attract only dozens of activists. But authorities have handled this week's protests with comparative tolerance and police may simply divert protesters away from the city center and avoid confrontation.
The United States and the European Union issued separate statements denouncing the police action and announcing plans to impose restrictions on Belarus, including a travel ban in the aftermath of the election. But Russia, Lukashenko's main backer, expressed sympathy.