MINSK. Aug 10 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has denied reports saying that some law enforcement officials refused to fulfil their duties during the protests in Belarus.
"The police and the military men who were involved behaved very well, real patriots. There are now bogus stories saying that OMON [special police units] laid down their shields in some city. I started verifying it - it's an absolute lie. Ordinary guys. They're saying, 'We don't put the country on our shields, we'll defend it as much as possible,'" Lukashenko was quoted as saying by the Belarusian state-run news agency BelTA during a meeting with Sergei Lebedev, the head of the Commonwealth of Independent States monitoring mission, on Monday.