US Department of State condemns disband of demonstrations in Minsk

• 13.12.2007, 10:14

The United States condemned the severe beating of pro-democracy protestors by police in Belarus on Wednesday, which left at least one activist hospitalized.

"We condemn the use of brutal force against demonstrators today in Minsk," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement, singling out party leader Zmitser Fedaruk, who he said had been "specifically targeted."

"He has been hospitalized with serious injuries," McCormack said. "This incident is another in a long series of repressive acts by the Belarusian authorities against their own citizens." He said Fedaruk and another opposition party leader, Anatol Lyabedzka, had been part of a Belarus pro-democracy delegation that met with US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week in Washington.

"We again call on the Belarusian authorities to refrain from the use of force against their own people, and to allow the exercise of fundamental rights, including free speech and assembly," McCormack added.