CNN - October 5, 1999

MINSK, Belarus (AP) -- The Belarusian police raided the headquarters of a human-rights group and confiscated its office equipment in the latest action against dissent, activists said Tuesday.

Police entered the office of the Vesna-96 human-rights group late Monday, confiscating their copying machine and computers, the activists said.

The officers didn't produce a search warrant or other documents but said they were acting on area residents' complaints that the group's office produces too much noise and attracts crowds, said Boris Gunther, a spokesman for Vesna-96.

The government of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has systematically harassed political opponents, human-rights campaigners and independent media, and sent police to club peaceful protesters.

Lukashenko, who is openly nostalgic for the Soviet Union, remains broadly popular in Belarus thanks to his firebrand populism and efforts to preserve a Soviet-era social safety net, even though the Belarusian economy has gone steadily downhill. The average monthly wage now amounts to the equivalent of about $20.