Milinkevich visits fellow oppn leader in detention centre

(26 Mar 2006) SHOTLIST
1. Wide of Zhodino detention centre No. 8
2. Gates of Zhodino detention centre
3. Barbed wire over wall
4. Opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich approaching prison entrance
5. Mid of Milinkevich enquiring about Alexander Kozulin's presence
6. Cutaway of barbed wire
7. Milinkevich talking to press
8. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Alexander Milinkevich, Opposition leader:
"I am not afraid of taking risks but every risk should be well founded. We could provoke clashes, explode something and blame it all on authorities. These are all various methods. But I think peaceful protests are most effective at this moment. But maybe we will have to fight one day."
9. Cutaway press
10. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Alexander Milinkevich, Opposition leader:
"We showed that it's possible not to be afraid, to hold unsanctioned protests under a dictatorship. And we were not dispersed, we showed that we can handle this. We proved that authorities are afraid and we are much less so."
11. Milinkevich leaving
STORYLINE
Belarus opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich on Sunday visited a detention centre in Zhodino, 60 kilometres from Kiev, where another opposition leader, Alexander Kozulin was reportedly being held.
Kozulin and other activists were arrested on Saturday when thousands of demonstrators clashed with riot police as they tried to march to a jail, in capital Minsk, where more than 200 opposition protesters were being held.
Milinkevich on Saturday had expressed disapproval of Kozulin's call for the march to the jail, saying it unnecessarily provoked police.
Kozulin was one of three candidates who ran March 19 against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who won in a landslide for a third term.
His election, which the opposition contends was fraudulent, and international observers said fell far short of democratic norms, sparked off days of rare protests in this tightly controlled country.
"We showed that it's possible not to be afraid, to hold unsanctioned protests under a dictatorship. And we were not dispersed, we showed that we can handle this," said Milinkevich, the most popular of the opposition leaders.
The European Union, meanwhile, called on its European partners Sunday to join in protesting Belarusian authorities' violence against demonstrators, and Kozulin's detention.

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