UKRAINE: Belarus police have arrested a key opposition leader after a weekend of violence against pro-democracy protesters and hundreds of arrests.
Alexander Kozulin was jailed with some family members after police broke up a rally by several thousand students protesting against the controversial March 19th elections that saw President Alexander Lukashenko win a third term in office.
The arrest came as black-clad riot police clubbed demonstrators who gathered in central Minsk in a protest timed to coincide with the Belarus declaration of independence in 1918.
Demonstrators arrived at the central October Square on Saturday morning waving banners, flowers and the former red and white flag of Belarus.
Police blocked the square and the crowd then marched to a nearby park.
Police stood back as opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich told 7,000 followers: "We are starting work against the dictatorship and this work will sooner or later bear fruit."
Trouble broke out when about 3,000 protesters marched out of the park to the Okreshy jail, where several dozen protesters are being held after being arrested when police broke up a tented protest in October Square early on Friday morning.
Eyewitnesses said three lines of riot police confronted the crowd. The police drummed batons on their shields and advanced on the protesters.
One demonstrator was injured and the Interior Ministry said eight policemen were also hurt. A Russian journalist was beaten and detained. No figure was given for how many protesters are being held by police.
Poland confirmed that among those arrested in the Friday operation was Poland's former ambassador to Belarus, Mariusz Maszkiewicz. Poland has been a leading supporter of pro-democracy protests in Belarus.
However, unlike the pro-democracy revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine in recent years, the opposition protests in Minsk remain small.
Mr Milinkevich's hope of attracting mass crowds for Saturday's protest was not fulfilled, and while riot police chased demonstrators down some streets, eyewitnesses said shoppers went about their business nearby.
European Union officials will this week begin to flesh out the practicalities of sanctions on Belarus announced on Friday at a summit of EU foreign ministers.
Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said these would not be economic sanctions, which would hit ordinary people, but "restrictive measures" aimed at officials.
The United States is expected to co-ordinate similar measures, with White House spokesman Scott McClennan announcing "targeted sanctions" involving visa bans and the freezing of assets of Belarus leaders.
Yet without the support of Russia, which provides billions of dollars of subsidised gas and oil to Belarus, the EU and US are almost powerless to influence Mr Lukashenko, as the West does almost no trade with Belarus.
Moscow welcomed election results that the OSCE denounced as severely flawed.