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Belarus Famed Grandmother Detained At Protests

By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News  

(Worthy News) – Mass protests were held for the sixth straight Sunday in Belarus following the detention of a grandmother, who became a symbol of resistance against longtime President Alexander Lukashenko. As many as 100,000 people rallied in Minsk amid mounting pressure on Lukashenko to step down and allow fair and free elections.
 
Protestors gathered despite hundreds of troops trying to block the center of the Belarusian capital. Security forces deployed water cannons as well as armored personnel carriers and erected barbed-wire barriers. Rallies also happened place in several other cities, including Brest and Grodno. 

Demonstrators demanded the resignation of Lukashenko, who ruled the former Soviet nation with an iron fist for 26 years. Among the most vocal demonstrators was Nina Bahinskaya, a 73-year-old great-grandmother and symbol of the protest movement.

Bahinsksya and hundreds of people, many of them women, were detained since Saturday. A masked officer abruptly removed a flag and flowers Bahinsksya was carrying as she was pushed into a police van.

Earlier Belarussian police in green uniforms and black ski-masks hiding their faces encircled female protesters in Minsk. But the demonstrators did not seem intimidated, chanting slogans such as “Only cowards beat women!”

MANY DETAINED

Bahinsksya said she views president Lukashenko as “a sick man.” She claimed the Belarusian leader “is controlled by people in Moscow,” Russia.  Bahinsksya was taken to a police station and reportedly released shortly afterward.

Witnesses said police took into custody so many protesters that they ran out of room in vans and had to free some of the women.

And on Sunday, dozens more were detained in rallies over what critics viewed as the rigged presidential election last month.

Protestors and Western leaders demand a new honest ballot. But officials maintain Lukashenko won the August 9 election with 80 percent of the vote.

For now, the standoff continues. In total, more than 7,000 people were detained since the protests began last month. During that time, hundreds were injured, and several were killed in clashes with security forces.