Belarusian president says security service needs 'real Chekists'

Belarus must strengthen its security services with "real Chekists," a phrase referring to the original Soviet secret police, the country's authoritarian president said Friday.

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&to=http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/92/370/15790_Lukashenko.html' target=_blank>Alexander Lukashenko is an open admirer of the Soviet Union and a pariah to the West because of his government's crackdown on dissent and news media. Belarus' main security service retains its Soviet-era acronym of KGB.

In remarks calling for strengthening the service, Lukashenko said: "We have to name real &to=http://english.pravda.ru/society/2001/12/18/23861.html' target=_blank>Chekists to the leadership posts, of the quality that Dzerzhinsky once spoke of." Felix Dzerzhinsky was the founder of the first Soviet secret police force, the Cheka, reports AP. O.Ch.

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