As blood flows, anger grows in Belarus
He was wheeled in, his neck heavily bandaged, his once-white T-shirt rust-coloured from the dried blood, as if he had been drinking coffee and then spilt the entire cup. Vyacheslav was pale with shock, his eyes unmoving from fear.
His friend Pavel Konoplyanko, legs cut and bloody, had brought him to Hospital 10, a Soviet-era facility on the outskirts of Minsk, the Belarus capital. Together, they were waiting on Vyacheslav’s X-ray results.
Staff wearing PPE – a reminder of another crisis where Belarus has been found wanting – scurried about, shocked, treating the latest victims of the president’s oppression. Mr Konoplyanko, 23, explained to The Daily Telegraph: “We were there standing by the monument, and they started hurling stun grenades at us.”
In the hospital’s driveway, seven miles from the city centre, as he reflected on the night’s battles, at least eight ambulances drove in carrying wounded protesters. Mr Konoplyanko said. “I have no trust in the election results. Everyone can see that the vote was rigged.”
He was too young to witness Alexander Lukashenko’s riot police do their worst on the election night in 2010, when several thousand people were boxed into a central square, beaten up and eventually jailed. The hardline president has tended, until now, to take a more targeted approach to dissidents since.
But Sunday night was, Mr Konoplyanko said, the worst police carnage he had ever seen. Scores were injured and up to 3,000 detained.
It came after Belarus’s central election commission said Mr Lukashenko – known as Europe’s last dictator – had won 80.2 per cent of the vote in the election. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, 37, a former English teacher, took just 9.9 per cent, the commission announced.
All through Sunday were the signs that the election would turn violent. The side-streets of Minsk’s main drag were packed with military vans. Troops with machine guns checked IDS of drivers entering Minsk. Internet connections grew weaker until all popular apps were down.
By the time an exit poll announcing Mr Lukashenko’s landslide victory came out at one minute past eight, all chat groups and messengers were blocked. That made it impossible for angry Belarusians to coordinate any joint action.
Still, a stream of people soon headed to Minsk’s Great Patriotic War Museum that protest groups had named as a potential venue. Crowds grew, and before too long groups of officers began snatching people and throwing them into police vans.
Near a river bank, on just one street, a glimmering line of riot police blocked the route to the city centre: 50 to 60 riot policemen were in full gear, shoulder to shoulder, so close that their shields touched. It was a scene repeated on many of the city’s thoroughfares.
A moment later, the shields began to rattle and the row moved closer to the protesters, their heavy steps landing with a thud. Stun grenades boomed.
Ambulances began to wheeze back and forth to clear protesters. One of those hurt was my colleague, a photographer beaten up in a police van until he lost consciousness. He too was treated in the suburban hospital.
‘It included indiscriminate use of force, including stun grenades, against a peaceful crowd and arbitrary arrests’
When I found him, his right arm had been bandaged.
A young man wrapped in a Belarusian flag and his girlfriend went in to get his injuries examined.
Rights activists reported one man was run over by police, and that 200 were detained and sustained numerous injuries.
Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia director, said she had witnessed similar scenes.
“Amnesty International delegates witnessed first-hand the viciousness of the police response, which included indiscriminate use of force – including stun grenades – against a peaceful crowd, and arbitrary arrests of individuals who were far from any protest. One horrifying video shows a police van running over a protester at full speed on a wide road.
“This footage captures the bloodchilling ruthlessness of the Belarusian police’s actions last night, and shows why so many in Belarus are desperate for change.”
Back in town, drivers were honking in support of the opposition. Three young men stopped us in the street when they saw my friend’s camera. They said they heard about the rampage earlier that night, but it made them even angrier. One said: “We’re going to keep coming out.”