[WikiEN-l] Re: Alexander Lukashenko

[Alex R.]

You are right Fred, there is not a lot of "reliable news" in English out of
Belarus.
There are plenty of sources if you speak Russian, however. In English there
is
the Belpan news service with some of their articles reprinted on
Charter97.org
and on Brestonline.com, there are also a few Russian services that have
English versions of stories written. There are various Human Rights reports
that have a lot of verifiable information and OSCE committees that regularly
report on Belarus. The problem with a lot of this material is that there are
always allegations about the news sources being slanted to be "pro Western"
or pro Luka.

Regarding journalists everyone pointing the finger at everyone else
and even Russian journalists are being expelled from that country
so it is hard to know what is accurate or propaganda from either side.
If you've been to Belarus (I've been there four times) you quickly
realize that it is hard to study this country in the face of all the
mounting
opposition to Lukashenko outside Belarus and what appears to be a very
apathic populace that is just trying to survive. Reminded me a lot of Haiti
as it shares a similar status with the western hemisphere's poorest country,
but without the aging soviet infrastructure and few international aid
projects.
Lukashenko's renovated main train terminal in Mensk is _so_ tacky.

Alex

From: "Fred Bauder" <fredbaud at ctelco.net>
Part of the problem here is that we don't get a lot of news out of Belarus.
So even if someone is interested and has a general opinion we may still not
know the specifics. I know not to trust anything 172 writes but can't vouch
for the factual basis of the alternative article.

Fred