Belarus violence draws EU flak

Initial reports indicated Kozulin may have been beaten, but his wife Irina that “the condition of his health is OK.”

The European Union, meanwhile, called on its European partners on Sunday to join in protesting Belarusian authorities’ violence against demonstrators, and Kozulin’s detention. Austria, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said in a statement that it was “appalled by the violence used against demonstrators by the Belarusian authorities.”

The human-rights group Vasnya said more than 100 people were detained in Saturday in connection with a series of opposition actions, including an attempt to rally on a central square that was repulsed by police, a later rally in a nearby park and the attempt to march to the jail.

The protests were set off by the March 19 elections that gave authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko a third term. The opposition contends the voting was wildly fraudulent and international observers said the elections fell far short of democratic norms, with problems including harassment of opposition candidates and distorted coverage by state-dominated mass media.

Kozulin, who was one of three candidates running against Lukashenko, appears less popular among opposition than Alexander Milinkevich, who was the main opposition candidate.

Milinkevich on Saturday disapproved of Kozulin’s call for the march to the jail, saying it unnecessarily provoked police. —YURAS KARMANAU