LONDON: Hopes that Belarus, dubbed ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’ by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, would be the next domino to fall following pro-democracy revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine collided with reality this week.

Defying Polish and international pressure, President Alexander Lukashenko completed the decapitation of the Union of Poles in Belarus, which represents many of the country’s 400,000-strong Polish minority, by replacing its independent executive with regime-friendly figures.

Mistreatment of ethnic Poles in Belarus is an explosive issue in election season Poland. The harassment and arrest of the Polish-funded union’s leaders has led Warsaw to withdraw its ambassador in Minsk.

Poland’s president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, voiced alarm earlier this month. “We expect authorities in Belarus to follow international obligations regarding minority rights and freedom of speech,” he said.

But others saw Mr Lukashenko’s action as part of a pattern of silencing all opposition before a presidential poll next year. Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president, said: “It is necessary to make use of every opportunity ... to take a stand against this post-Soviet autocrat and his efforts to totally suppress the remains of independent initiatives in Belarus.”

George Soros, the billionaire founder of the Open Society Institute, which is active in former Soviet and Warsaw Pact countries, backed Mr Havel’s call for a halt to the ‘daily abuse of basic human and civil rights’.

The US and EU would also like to see the back of Mr Lukashenko. Last year’s US-sponsored Belarus democracy act prohibits financial assistance to his government while authorizing US funding for NGOs and independent media.

Alleging past electoral fraud, Brussels has imposed limited sanctions. Last week Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU external relations commissioner, announced radio broadcasts of uncensored news into Belarus from Germany. Poland is launching a similar move. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service