Organiser of strike in Belarus is detained

Belarus’ authorities have detained the organiser of a strike at a top industrial plant as part of a methodical effort to stifle weeks of protests demanding the resignation of the coun - tr y’s authoritarian leader of 26 years after an election the opposition denounced as being rigged.

President Alexander Lukashenko has dismissed the protesters as western puppets and rejected the European Union’ s offers of mediation. After a ferocious crackdown on demonstrators in the first days after the 9 August vote that caused international outrage, his government has avoided large-s ca leviolence and sought to end the protests with threats and selective jailing of activists.

An atolyBokun, who leads the strike committee at Belarus kali, a huge potash factory in Sol igorsk, was detained by police yesterday. He is facing a 15-day jail sentence on charges of organising an unsanctioned protest. The factory, which accounts for a fifth of the world’s potash fertiliser output, is the nation’s top cash earner.