"We see your democracy soaked in blood"

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6518296&cKey=1141329020000

Belarus leader denounces West as rival beaten

MINSK (Reuters) - President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday told Western critics to stay out of Belarus's affairs, while an opposition rival challenging his bid for re-election was beaten by security forces and detained for several hours.

The ex-Soviet state's normally timid opposition turned out in force at a rally organised without official permission, with 3,000 demonstrators -- their largest number in at least two years -- chanting slogans under the watchful eye of riot police.

Lukashenko, who faces tougher Western sanctions if a March 19 election which he is heavily favoured to win is denounced as unfair, vowed to take whatever steps were necessary to prevent Western-inspired subversion of his administration. snip

In his speech, Lukashenko said his stewardship had boosted living standards. Western countries, he said, had no right to give lessons to his former Soviet state.

"It is not for (the West) to teach us about human rights. Let them deal with their own affairs. They have plunged the entire Middle East into blood. We see your democracy soaked in blood," he said.

[mmonk]

1. We've lost moral authority to lecture anyone, even

when we're justified in lecturing someone. I think this administration will make it impossible for America to really lead in the future.

[Mika]

2. Any 'moral authority' we had was only imagined.

This country was founded on genocide and slavery. The only way that America really lead was by the bullet or by the bomb.

[mmonk]

3. We may have been founded on those things,

but there was a general change in our history, especially following WWII and the concepts put forth first with the League of Nations, then the UN along with the formulations put forth in the Geneva conventions and the Nuremburg trials which helped put forth a better projection of real justice.