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Belarus Leader Says Russia Willing to Help Counter Protests

Associated Press

   MINSK, BELARUS - Thousands of demonstrators in Belarus took to the
   streets again Saturday to demand that the country's authoritarian
   leader resign after a presidential vote they called fraudulent. In
   response, the president declared that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had
   agreed to provide security assistance to restore order if Belarus
   requested it.

   President Alexander Lukashenko spoke Saturday evening several hours
   after a phone call with Putin as he struggled to counter the biggest
   challenge yet to his 26 years in power.

   Saturday was the seventh consecutive day of large protests against the
   results of the country's Aug. 9 presidential election in which election
   officials claimed the 65-year-old Lukashenko won a sixth term in a
   landslide. Opposition supporters believe the election figures were
   manipulated and say protesters have been beaten mercilessly by police
   since the vote.

   Harsh police crackdowns against the protesters, including the detention
   of about 7,000 people, have not quashed the most sustained
   anti-government movement since Lukashenko took power in 1994.

   The demonstrators rallied Saturday at the spot in the capital of Minsk
   where a protester died this week in clashes with police. Some male
   protesters pulled off their shirts to show bruises they said came from
   police beatings. Others carried pictures of loved ones beaten so badly
   they could not attend the rally.

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