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Lackluster Belarus Protest Entered Third Day

Several hundred defiant demonstrators who have camped out in a central square endured freezing temperatures for a third day to protest the re-election of authoritarian Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. The opposition leader, Alexander Milinkevich, has denounced the election that gave Lukashenko a new five-year term as a fraud and is calling for a new vote.

Milinkevich is also urging demonstrators to keep up daily protests and is calling for a major show of strength on Saturday. This Saturday is the anniversary of the declaration of independence of the first, short-lived Belarusian republic in 1918, and it is a traditional day for Lukashenko`s opponents to hold protests.

International observers say the vote was neither free nor fair, and Europe`s main human rights organization said the election was a "farce", and the United States have called for the results to be scrapped and new elections held. So far police have only harassed people entering the square but have made no moves to crack down on the unprecedented protest in this former Soviet republic. Belarus is sometimes referred to as Europe`s last dictatorship.