Earlier this morning Robert posted an entry on some Poles in Belarus who happen to be rock music lovers using their passion to protest against the government, based on a Radio Liberty report from yesterday (Aug. 3, see Rock Against the Regime!). Whether this was related to today’s crackdown or not, Le Monde is reporting that Belarusian police have arrested the Vice-President of the Polish Association of Belarus, Wieslaw Kiewliak, along with an aid. According to Le Monde, this is the sixth member of the organization that the government has arrested this week.

The article notes the context; Poland is leading the charge within the European Union for democracy in Belarus, and the European Commission has announced that it plans to begin providing aid to independent media and perhaps even opposition parties in the country. If the EU follows through on that, it would be more than they have been willing to do in the past.

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko had a couple of notable responses. One was to say that “the Americans and the West do all of this in order to destabilize the situation, a precise tactic developed which will come to intervention in our country.” Yea, Sasha, we would like to intervene to stop you from arresting people that don’t like you. But Lukashenko saved the greatest insult for Russia, although it was surely not intended as such: “Russia recognizes that it has only one true ally: Belarus. Any ‘color revolution’ in Belarus will be thought of as like a revolution against Moscow.” I’m sure lots of Russians appreciate the “one true ally” comment especially.

And I’m sure Robert and other Protest Babes fans will be happy to know that although the link above is in French, it does have a picture they can add to their collection of babes protesting dictators.

Contributed by Kirk H. Sowell of Window on the Arab World, and More!