Thousands protest in Belarus capital
TENS of thousands of people flooded the heart of the Belarus capital Minsk yesterday in a show of anger over a brutal police crackdown this week on peaceful protesters that followed a disputed election.
Authorities sought to ease rising public fury by freeing at least 2,000 people who were jailed after earlier demonstrations.
Factory workers marched across the city shouting “Go away!” in a call for authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko to resign after 26 years of iron-fisted rule that was extended in an election that protesters denounced as rigged.
Yesterday’s crowds grew to more than 20,000, filling central Independence Square. About a dozen soldiers guarding the nearby government headquarters lowered their riot shields in what the demonstrators saw as a sign of solidarity, and women rushed to embrace and kiss the guards.
As the protesters rallied on the square, Mr Lukashenko dismissed them as puppets manipulated from abroad.
During a meeting with top law enforcement officials, he defended the crackdown as a justified response to violence against police by some of the protesters. The interior ministry said 121 police officers were injured. He told officials, however, to avoid excessive force. “If a person falls down and lies still, don’t beat him,” Mr Lukashenko said. The Belarusian leader cautioned people against turning out for protests, saying the country is facing foreign “aggression”.
“Don’t get out into the streets. You should understand that you and your children are being used as cannon fodder,” Mr Lukashenko said, alleging people from Poland, the Netherlands, Ukraine and some members of Russia’s opposition were fomenting the unrest.
Earlier, police did not interfere as the protesters marched across the city, reflecting Mr Lukashenko’s apparent attempt to assuage the opposition by stepping back from the violent police crackdowns seen across the country earlier this week.
The release by the interior ministry of about 2,000 of the nearly 7,000 people detained was seen as another move to defuse outrage. It said more would be freed. Many who were released spoke of beatings and abuse by police, and some showed bruises on their bodies.
“The authorities are obviously trying to de-escalate the situation and ease the tensions, fearing that the furious industrial workers will take to the streets,” said Valiantsin Stefanovich of the Viasna rights centre.
Demonstrators have swarmed the streets ever since Sunday’s election in which officials reported that Mr Lukashenko won 80% of the vote. His main challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled on Tuesday to Lithuania, posted a video in which she disputed the results of the vote.