Belarus police raid independent broadcasters

By Andrei Makhovsky

MINSK, March 27 (Reuters) - Security police raided Belarussian broadcasters' offices and detained at least two reporters at their homes on Thursday, journalists in the former Soviet republic said.

The raids were launched two days after police broke up a rally by opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko and dozens of activists were fined or handed short jail terms.

Zhanna Litvina, head of Belarus's Journalists' Association, said the KGB security service had searched offices of two independent radio stations, Polish-funded Radio Racja (Right) and EU-backed European Radio. A journalist at television broadcaster Belsat said its premises had also been raided.

"The searches started in offices and apartments at almost exactly the same time in Minsk, Gomel, Grodno and other cities," Litvina said.

"They say the formal grounds for this is a criminal case on insulting the president. We have no detailed information, as we cannot at the moment reach most of the journalists."

Accused by the West of human rights violations, Lukashenko has called for better relations in recent months, particularly with the European Union. But he remains locked in a diplomatic row with the United States, which this month withdraw its ambassador at Belarus's request in a dispute over U.S. sanctions against Belarussian energy firm Belneftekhim.

A spokesman for Radio Racja said two reporters had been detained in Thursday's action. "KGB officers lay in ambush at apartments housing our reporters or offices and held anyone arriving there," he said.

The KGB was unavailable for immediate comment.