The European Union and the United States led a storm of international condemnation of Belarus yesterday following a crackdown on protesters against the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko.

Hundreds of people were arrested in the early hours of yesterday after riot police broke up the demonstrations in Minsk in the immediate aftermath of Lukashenko’s landslide victory in Sunday’s election.

Among those arrested were seven of his nine election opponents.

The European Union’s top diplomat Catherine Ashton called on Belarus to “immediately release” the opposition leaders and condemned the use of violence.

Belarus yesterday detained over 600 protesters, including seven opposition candidates, after smashing a mass rally protest-ing fraud in the landslide re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko.

Mr Lukashenko, described as Europe’s last dictator by Washington, won Sunday’s polls outright with 79.6 per cent of the vote on the back of a massive voter turnout of over 90 per cent, the central election commission said.

His nearest rival received less than three per cent in polls which the OSCE observer mission said showed the ex-Soviet state was still a “considerable way” from holding democratic elections, noting a flawed vote count.

Tens of thousands of outraged voters later braved arrest to gather in central Minsk overnight, some trying to storm government buildings and smashing glass doors. But a reinforced contingent of anti-riot police arrived, encircling the protesters and taking hundreds into waiting police vans. AFP correspondents, one of whom was arrested, saw several protesters beaten with truncheons.

Apparently showing no qualms over the mass arrests, Mr Lukashenko announced at a news conference that 639 protesters were being held in Minsk detention facilities.

In what appeared to be a massive government crackdown on the opposition, seven of the nine challengers to Mr Lukashenko were also arrested by yesterday morning, their representatives said.

The US condemned Belarus for the election-day violence, with a US embassy statement saying Washington was “especially concerned over excessive use of force by the authorities”.

EU chief diplomat Catherine Ashton condemned the use of violence and urged the immediate release of those detained, while German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle described the crackdown as “unacceptable”.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, however, showed no sign of wanting to intervene over the police action, saying the election “is an internal matter for Belarus”.

In contrast, neighbouring Poland condemned the violence, the foreign ministry saying it was “particularly worrying to see the beating and arrest of opposition candidates in the presidential election.” Fellow ex-Soviet republics Lithuania and Latvia, which have close economic links with Belarus, also blasted Minsk over the use of force while Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the crackdown and the arrests of opposition candidates was “unacceptable”.

“We are very worried about the episodes of repression and violence against protesters and opposition representatives,” Frattini said in a statement.

“We believe that episodes like the events yesterday do not help build a climate of trust to facilitate this process, and are not in the interest of Belarus,” he added.

The Vesna (Spring) human rights support group said its count showed that more than 400 protesters had been detained.

Listening to speeches by five of the candidates condemning the elections, the protesters had waved Belarussian and EU flags and shouted “For Freedom!”, “Down with the Gulag” and “Long Live Belarus”.

“What was attempted yesterday in Minsk is banditry. These are vandals,” Mr Lukashenko told reporters. “There is not going to be a revolution in Belarus.”

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observer mission said that while the voting itself was smooth, the process deteriorated significantly during the count.

“Observers assessed the vote count as bad and very bad in almost half of all observed polling stations. The count was largely conducted in a non-transparent manner, generally in silence, which undermined its credibility,” it said.

Vladimir Nekliayev, one of the challengers seeking to unseat Mr Lukashenko, was badly wounded in initial clashes and taken to hospital with a serious concussion.

His wife told Warsaw-based European Radio for Belarus that Mr Nekliayev was later taken from his hospital bed by the security services.

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