Belarus Sees More Protests Despite Intensified Crackdown
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Police have tried to disperse demonstrators in the Belarusian capital where some 100,000 people demanded the resignation of long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko. Sunday’s rallies in Minsk and other cities came as a police crackdown on dissidents and activists intensified.
Security forces detained at least 100 people in Minsk and other towns as protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, witnesses said. In Minsk, police attacked demonstrators near the presidential palace, firing pepper spray and wielding batons.
It was not immediately clear how many people were injured. A month of mass unrest has seen at least four people killed and hundreds injured as the government is cracking down on dissent.
The latest protests came after on Saturday, police detained dozens of people, mostly students, in the fourth weekend of protests. The demonstrators do not believe Lukashenko won the August 9 presidential ballot with 80 percent of the vote. They claim he rigged the poll.
But President Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet republic with an iron fist for 26 years, denies wrongdoing and refuses to leave.
Amid the turmoil, top opposition activist Olga Kovalkova said she had taken refuge in Poland over the weekend amid jail threats.
PROMINENT ACTIVIST
The Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki made clear his country would offer support to victims of repression in Belarus.
Olga Kovalkova isn’t the only prominent activist seeking refuge in nearby nations. Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has sought refuge in Lithuania. She urged the United Nations Security Council via videolink to help halt the authorities’ crackdown on protesters.
“Today, my country is in turmoil. Peaceful protesters are illegally detained, beaten, and imprisoned,” said Tikhanovskaya, 37. “We ask the UN to send a monitoring mission immediately to Belarus to document the situation on the ground,” the former English teacher added.
“The protests themselves started after a cynical and blatant attempt by Mr. Lukashenko to steal the votes of the people.”
She also recalled that some 7,000 people had been detained in recent weeks and said the opposition had fair demands. “The demands of the nation are simple: The immediate termination of threats by the regime. The immediate release of all political prisoners and free and fair elections,” she said.
MAKING DEMANDS
However, she claimed, there is only one obstacle for these demands being met. “This obstacle is Mr. Lukashenko, a man who desperately clings on to power and who refuses to listen to his people and his own state officials.”
Church leaders are among those expressing concerns about the detentions and reported police abuse and torture.
Last month, European Union leaders agreed to impose sanctions. That would include asset freezes – on as yet unnamed Belarusian officials involved in alleged election-rigging, a police crackdown, and imprisonment of protesters.
But they still have to work out the exact sanctions as protests continue.
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