Belarus leader patents his title

The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has cemented his totalitarian reputation by decreeing a ban on the heads of companies, unions and other Belarussian organisations calling themselves "president", limiting the use of the title to himself.

Mr Lukashenko's new law, which is to be passed by August 1, takes a leaf out of the book of the former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin who decreed during his rule from 1971 to 1979 that the title president should be for his exclusive use.

Anna Shpak, the head of Belarus's department of constitutional lawmaking, national security and law enforcement in the ministry of justice, told the newspaper Gazeta: "The idea belongs to the president, who ordered his administration to do this."

There was no indication of an officially preferred alternative. Belarussian newspapers do not use a capital P when referring to the president, with the exception of the state paper Soviet Belarus. It is not clear whether the law will also ban the use of president with a lower case p.

Alexander Feduta, a former press secretary for President Lukashenko and - for the moment - president of the Social Technologies Organisation, said: "It will make life harder."

Organisations using the title would have to alter their rules and re-register, "which will take a long time".

The head of the Belarussian Union of Businessmen, Alexander Potupa, said it would spoil Belarus's image abroad.

"It is tasteless, and will make the international community laugh at us."

He suggested that President Lukashenko should give himself the title Belarusbashi, on the model of the president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, who calls himself Turkmenbashi - father of all Turkmen.

Belarus's 10 million people are crippled by poverty and strictly controlled by Mr Lukashenko's secret police.

Opposition groups are persecuted. Four leading opponents of the Lukashenko regime disappeared in 1999. The regime's reluctance to properly investigate the disappearances prompted the suspicion that it was involved: an allegation which it firmly denies.

Mr Lukashenko's grip, confirmed by elections in 2001, continues to tighten.

The US state department said that last year "government restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, peaceful assembly, religions and movement all increased".

It added that the mid-90s referendum which extended Mr Lukashenko's powers was "non-democratic".