4th week of protests calls for Belarus president to resign

KYIV, Ukraine — Tens of 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 claim gave President Alexander Lukashenko, who turned 66 on Sunday, 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 olivegreen prisoner transport vehicles. Police detained some marchers and forced them into the transports.

Police said 125 people were 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 shieldbearing riot police.

The widespread protests arose after the election that officials say gave Mr. Lukashenko a landslide 80% win over his main challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a former teacher and the wife of a popular jailed blogger.

Mr. Lukashenko, in office since 1994, has been defiant but beleaguered, unable to put down largest, 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 said was not free or fair, and he has also refused offers from Baltic nations to help mediate the situation.

On Sunday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said new elections are needed in Belarus under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The best solution would be to repeat the vote “under the control of OSCE,” Mr. Borrell wrote in an opinion piece published in the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche.

Mr. Lukashenko says he has reached an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia would send in security help if asked.