An ex-KGB Major and a police officer want to form a government abroad to unite Belarus' opposition.
Former officers of Belarus’ Armed Forces and law-enforcement agencies living abroad plan to form a "Belarusian transition government", reported Polskie Radio on Tuesday.
The organizing committee held a meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, "a few days ago" to discuss the plans.
Polskie Radio named only two persons behind the group -- Retired Army Colonel Uladzimir Baradach and Retired KGB Major Anufry Ramanovich.
Belarus’ "special services have tamed the country’s pro-democratic movement a long time ago", Mr. Baradach, the former commander of the Armed Forces’ 5th Independent Special Task Brigade, who applied for political asylum in Germany in October last year, told the radio station.
"Many leaders of opposition parties are the special services’ puppets. It is high time to do something about this", he said.
Mr. Baradach denied plans to head the transitional government, suggesting that Belarusian opposition politicians such as Aliaksandr Milinkievich, Andrej Sannikau, Uladzimir Niakliajeu or Aliaksandr Kazulin could take up the role. "We do not want to split parties apart, we want to unite them", he said.
Mr. Ramanovich told Polskie Radio that the transitional government would be headquartered abroad so that Belarus’ special services could not reach it.
When asked to comment by BelaPAN, Mr. Baradach said that the objective of the transitional government would be to topple Aliaksandr Lukashenka. The Belarusians should at least get the 1994 version of their constitution back, he said.
The transitional government will work to unite the country’s opposition groups for this cause, he said.
Mr. Baradach noted that a few acting officers of the KGB and the interior ministry had already thrown their support behind the group, along with opposition leaders based in provinces. He refused to disclose their names or the names of his close associates.
He said that the committee that is being organized would soon hold founding conferences in Belarusian cities.
