BELARUS: Belarussian President AlexanderLukashenko, isolated by the West for a poor record on human rights and media freedom, said yesterday he would hold a referendum on October 17th to extend his rule writes Daniel McLaughlin in Budapest.
Running for a third term in a presidential election due in 2006 would require changing the constitution, which limits a president to two straight five-year terms.
Mr Lukashenko (50) has been in power since 1994, having restarted his presidency through a referendum in 1996. That poll and his landslide victory in a presidential election in 2001 were condemned as fraudulent by the West and opposition.
News of the vote came as beleaguered journalists in Belarus lambasted the authorities yesterday for banning another six newspapers, in the latest crackdown blamed on Mr Lukashenko.
One was shut down for changing its address unannounced, another was closed for being too political in its coverage of industry, while a third was temporarily banned simply for "being published by a businessman", outraged reporters complained.
"Our authorities only put up with publications that parrot their words," said Ms Zhanna Litvina, head of the Belarussian Association of Journalists, which is one of the few dissenting voices still heard in a nation run by a man dubbed "Europe's last dictator".
Three others newspapers were silenced in the last fortnight, including the satirical publication, Navinki, in what critics called Mr Lukashenko's preparations for parliamentary elections next month and his expected bid for a third term in office - in contravention of the constitution.
"This is a purely political decision - they are clearing the information field before parliamentary elections and the referendum on Lukashenko's lifetime right to be elected president," insisted Navinki's editor, Mr Pavlyuk Kavalchik.
The media watchdog group, Reporters Without Borders, said: "The increase in suspensions of outspoken media for bogus administrative reasons at this time is an alarming sign. The systematic crackdown on the independent press is utterly incompatible with the holding of free elections."
Mr Lukashenko's officials have shut down dozens of news outlets in recent years, while the police and secret service are accused of threatening, assaulting and even murdering critical journalists.
In July 2000, Mr Dmitri Zavadski, a cameraman for Russian State Television, disappeared without trace. Four men, including two former members of a special police unit, were convicted behind closed doors of his murder, but allegations of official collaboration with the killers are still rife.