Protests on Belarus leader’s birthday demand he resign
Tens of KYIV, UKRAINE — thousands of demonstrators rallied Sunday in the Belarusian capital of Minsk to begin the fourth week of daily protests demanding that the country’s authoritarian president resign.
The protests began after an Aug. 9 presidential election that protesters say was rigged but that election officials say gave President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office.
Protesters initially tried to gather at Independence Square in Minsk, but barriers and riot police blocked it off. They then streamed down one of the capital’s main avenues, past hulking olive-green prisoner transport vehicles. Police detained some marchers and forced them into the transports.
Police said 125 peoplewere arrested, but Ales Bilyatsky of the Viasna human rights organization said more than 200 were detained.
The marchers, chanting “Freedom!” and “Resign!” eventually reached the outskirts of the presidential palace, which was blocked off by shield-bearing riot police. Therewerenoofficial figures on the crowd size, but some opposition sources claimed it exceeded 100,000.
The widespread protests arose after the election that officials say gave President Alexander Lukashenko a landslide 80% win over his main challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a former teacher and the wife of a popular jailed blogger.
Lukashenko, inofficesince 1994, has been defiant but beleaguered, unable to put downlargest, most sustained wave of protests yet in this Eastern European nation of 9.5 million people. He has refused to rerun the election, which both the European Union and the United States have saidwas not free or fair, andalso refusedoffers to help mediate the situation from Baltic nations.
Lukashenko says he has reached an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia will send in security help if asked. But Russia has appeared hesitant to get involved deeply in the Belarus unrest.
Putin and Lukashenko talked by phone on Sunday, but aKremlin statement gave few details of the conversation, other than noting that Putin congratulated the Belarusian leader on his 66th birthday.