Belarus arrests rival after failed deportation
Belarus said Maria Kolesnikova, one of the Belarusian opposition’s top organizers, was detained at the border with Ukraine as President Alexander Lukashenko targets the leaders of monthlong protests against his 26-year rule.
Belarus tried to expel Kolesnikova and two colleagues, according to opposition activists and Ukrainian officials. Brought forcibly to the frontier by Belarusian security forces around 4 a.m., Kolesnikova tore up her passport and climbed out the window of the vehicle to prevent the agents from forcing her out of the country, according to the colleagues.
Lukashenko told Russian media Tuesday that Kolesnikova was arrested after being pushed out of their car as the three members of the unified opposition’s coordination council tried to flee Belarus illegally during the night.
The Belarusian president has shown no sign of conceding to opposition demands that he step down and call new elections. Instead, police renewed a crackdown on protesters as rallies in the country’s capital, Minsk, swelled to about 100,000 people on Sunday, and targeted individual organizers.
“This wasn’t a voluntary exit,” Ukrainian Deputy Interior Minister Anton Herashchenko said on Facebook.
Lukashenko must answer for Kolesnikova’s “life and health” after “this brave woman took actions,” he wrote.
A growing number of opposition activists have said they were forced to leave the country recently. On Monday, the coordinating council said presidium member Kolesnikova, spokesman Anton Radniankou and executive secretary Ivan Krautsou were missing after being abducted by unknown people in Minsk.
In Kyiv Tuesday, Krautsou and Radniankou said they had been detained by Belarusian security agents threatening them with prosecution if they didn’t cooperate in a plan to force Kolesnikova to leave the country. They agreed.
Brought to the neutral zone between Belarusian and Ukrainian border posts, the two were put in Krautsou’s car to cross into Ukraine. But when the security forces pushed Kolesnikova into the back seat, she tore her passport and climbed out the back window. Belarusian agents detained her.
Radniankou said he and Krautsou fled for the Ukrainian border after Kolesnikova was detained.
Krautsou said they didn’t know Kolesnikova’s current whereabouts, but that he thought she could be in the custody of the Belarusian KGB security service.
Lukashenko has blamed the unrest — which began when he claimed a landslide victory in the Aug. 9 presidential election — on Western powers and sought support from his neighbour, Vladimir Putin. He’s set to meet the Russian leader in Moscow in the coming days.