Crisis-hit Belarus rocked by huge demo

TENS of thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of the Belarus capital Minsk yesterday to attend the funeral of a man killed in pro-democracy protests.

Opposition supporters called on President Alexander Lukashenko to resign after days of rallies, which have presented the biggest challenge to his 26-year rule.

In a desperate attempt to hold on to power, Lukashenko made an unusual public plea to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who agreed yesterday to provide security assistance.

Mass protests have swept through the country after Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in the country’s election on August 9, amid widespread claims of voterigging. The demonstrations have been marked by extreme police brutality and protester Alexander Taraikovsky, 34, died on Monday.

Officials said a bomb went off in his hand but opposition supporters and his partner Elena German say he was shot by police.

After a visit to the mortuary, she said: ‘There is a seam in the chest area. The hole was sewn up but there is a black bruise. His hands and feet are completely intact, there are not even bruises.’

Yesterday a mass of flowers and candles were laid at the scene of Mr Taraikovsky’s death and passing cars blared their horns. Other demonstrators held up pictures of injured opposition supporters.

Some 6,700 people were arrested after the election and many have spoken about experiencing extreme torture at the hands of the security services. The main opposition candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, insists she won between 60 and 70 per cent of the vote but has been forced to flee to Lithuania after publicly denouncing the election.

The leaders of Belarus neighbours Latvia and Lithuania and fellow Baltic state Estonia have dismissed the presidential vote as ‘neither free nor fair’, as has US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.