In Belarus, the situation is worsening for human rights activists, government critics and independent media.
The ruler Lukashenko calls foreign-financed forces "terrorists" and wants to silence them.
Minsk - In Belarus, according to human rights activists, the authorities of ruler Alexander Lukashenko are increasingly brutal against non-governmental organizations and independent media.
Representatives of the power apparatus raided and arrested lawyers and other employees of the Wesna human rights center on Wednesday, the organization said in Minsk.
The internationally known Wesna boss Ales Belyatsky was also arrested;
there had been no contact with him all day.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office condemned the "searches, confiscations and arrests in the strongest possible terms".
Political scientists and the opposition in Belarus speak of “massive purges”.
There has been a wave of raids, arrests and seizures of technology in the country.
A total of 16 organizations were affected by the "wave of repression," it said.
Activists, journalists and civil rights activists have been taken away.
Wesna listed dozens of cases.
Tichanovskaya speaks of a "campaign of revenge"
The purges would not stop until everything is destroyed, said the expert Artyom Schraibman, who has fled abroad.
Opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya, who went into exile under pressure from the authorities, said that the organizations concerned had done the work of government agencies for many years and looked after people's problems.
There is now a "campaign of revenge" against all those who have taken care of the country's development in recent years, said Tichanovskaya.
Economic experts, trade unionists and humanitarian aid services are also affected.
"The regime will break up even faster now," she said.
Lukashenko had recently said several times that the non-governmental organizations, the independent media and human rights activists were a threat to Belarus. The politician, decried as the “last dictator in Europe”, described the foreign-funded forces at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Tuesday as “terrorists”. He also reiterated his aim to continue cracking down on his opponents regardless of EU and US sanctions. He praised Putin for his support. dpa