U.N. envoy compares Belarus to ‘totalitarian’ state

GENEVA (Reuters) – The forced grounding of a passenger plane in Minsk shows the Belarussian government’s wish to end all forms of dissidence, the U.N. Special Rapporteur told the Human Rights Council on Monday, comparing its tactics with those of totalitarian states.

Anaïs Marin told the Geneva-based forum that the forced landing of a passenger jet in Minsk which led to the arrest of an onboard journalist in May “illustrates the desire of authorities to end all forms of dissidence by purging society of elements it considers undesirable.”

“It is a form of purge that recalls those practised by totalitarian states,” she continued in a speech where she described a “deteriorating” situation in the former Soviet state.

(Reporting by Emma Farge, editing by Silke Koltrowitz)