Leader threatens harsh crackdown on protesters
MINSK, Belarus — Belarus’ authoritarian leader threatened Wednesday to bring criminal charges against opposition leaders and called on his security services to get tougher on demonstrators — a possible harbinger of a renewed crackdown on the peaceful protests challenging the extension of his 26year rule.
President Alexander Lukashenko also accused the West of fomenting the unrest as he sought to consolidate his grip on power amid widening demonstrations.
Lukashenko spoke as the European Union rejected the official results of the Aug. 9 vote that kept him in office and expressed solidarity with protesters. The EU said it’s preparing sanctions against Belarusian officials responsible for the brutal postelection police actions.
During the first four days of protests, police detained almost 7,000 people and injured hundreds with rubber bullets, stun grenades and clubs. At least three protesters died.
The crackdown stirred broad outrage and helped bolster protesters’ ranks. On Sunday, an estimated 200,000 people rallied around the Belarusian capital’s main square. The huge crowds forced the authorities to back off, and police refrained from interfering with demonstrations over the past five days.
But faced with a widening strike that engulfed the country’s biggest industrial plants, police moved again Tuesday to disperse some protests. Officers briefly detained about 50 demonstrators who gathered outside the Minsk Tractor Factory to support its workers, who have been on strike since Monday, according to Sergei Dylevsky, leader of the factory’s strike committee.
“People are on strike demanding Lukashenko’s resignation, and authorities respond with batons and riot police,” Dylevsky said. “Lukashenko is not changing.”
The Interior Ministry said police dispersed demonstrators who were hampering factory workers’ passage and detained two of them for taking part in an unsanctioned demonstration.
The opposition body consists of top associates of Lukashenko’s main challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, as well as rights activists and representatives of striking workers. It also includes the nation’s most famous author, Svetlana Alexievich, who won the 2015 Nobel
Prize in literature.
Tsikhanouskaya, who moved to Lithuania after the vote, said in a video statement Wednesday that the council will spearhead a peaceful transition of power and help prepare a new fair presidential election. She called on EU leaders to support “Belarus’ reawakening.”