150,000 protesters demand resignation of Belarus leader
● More mass demonstrations in Minsk against Lukashenko
More than 150,000 protesters demanding the resignation of Belarus’ president gathered in the capital Minsk yesterday, keeping up the massive show of dissent that has shaken the country since a disputed presidential election two weeks ago.
The demonstration overflowed from Minsk’s sprawling 17-acre Independence Square.
There were no official figures on crowd size but it appeared to be 150,000 people or more.
Dozens of riot police prisoner transport vehicles were parked on the fringes but officers made no immediate efforts to break up the gathering.
Protesters said the official election results, in which President Alexander Lukashenko reportedly received 80 per cent of the vote, are fraudubeyond lent. The size and duration of the protests are unprecedented for Belarus, a former Soviet republic of 9.5 million people.
The 65-year-old leader, who has been in power for 26 years, appears to be flailing about for a strategy to counter them.
He has repeatedly blamed Western interference, claimed the protests were backed by the United States and accuses Nato of building up troop concentrations in Poland and Lithuania on Belarus’ western border, which the alliance denies.
He also claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was willing to offer “security assistance” to his government to quell the protests if he asked for it.
A similarly enormous crowd turned out for a protest a week ago and daily demonstrations have taken place since the vote on 9 August.
Several of the country’s key factories have been hit with protest strikes by workers fed up with government policies.
Those strikes not only threaten the already ailing economy, but show that opposition to Mr Lukashenko extends educated white-collar workers and into his traditional blue-collar base.
“Belarus has changed. Lukashenko has been able to unify everybody, from workers to intelligentsia, in the demand for change,” said Slava Chirkov, who attended yesterday’s demonstration with his wife and son.
They held a sign declaring “Lukashenko, your milk has gone sour”, referencing the president’s former job as the director of a Soviet-era collective farm.
Mr Lukashenko’s main election challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, fled to Lithuania on the day after the election.
Several other possible challengers fled the country even before the election.
An opposition Coordination Council was created last week to develop a strategy for a transition of power, but authorities have started a criminal investigation into its formation.
The authorities have also blocked more than 50 news websites that were covering the weeks of protests. The Belarusian Association of Journalists reported the shutdowns, which included sites for the Us-funded Radio Liberty and Belsat, a Polish-funded satellite TV channel focusing on Belarus.
The state publishing house has also stopped printing two top independent newspapers, the Narodnaya Volya and Komsomolskaya Pravda, claiming an equipment malfunction.
Public shows of support for Mr Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist since 1994, have been comparatively modest.
A pro-government rally in Minsk attracted about a quarter as many people as the protest march yesterday.
And on Saturday, only about 25 people showed up for a bicycle ride to support the president.
On the same day, hundreds of women dressed in white formed another human chain in Minsk as a sign of protest.
Another demonstration in the evening was attended by 3,000 people.