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Tens of thousands of Belarusians again challenged the fierce repression of the regime on Sunday to protest against the re-election of Alexander Lukashensko in Minsk, where there was a large deployment of security forces and the army.
More than 100,000 people gathered in the city center before converging in front of the Independence Palace, the seat of the presidency, according to AFP journalists.
Lukashenko, 66, in power since 1994 and whose re-election is considered fraudulent by the opposition, continues for his part to rule out any dialogue and seeks the support of Moscow.
To the beat of drums, with the red and white flags of the opposition, the protesters set out in the early afternoon in marches from the different neighborhoods of Minsk, to gather and form two impressive parades in avenues that converge in the center.
The crowd chanted slogans such as “Tribunal!” or “How much do they pay you?”, addressed to the police.
“Despite the rain and pressure from the authorities, despite the repression, there are many more people in Minsk than last Sunday,” a leading opposition figure, Maria Kolesnikova, told AFP.
“I am convinced that the demonstrations will continue until we win,” she added.
Like last week, there was a large deployment of the security forces, including with armored army vehicles around strategic buildings. Subway stations were blocked with barriers and barbed wire.
About 250 people were arrested in the country, of which about 170 in Minsk, according to the human rights NGO Viasna.
The Interior Ministry spokeswoman refused to confirm these figures to AFP.
At the beginning of the night the protesters progressively left the surroundings of the Independence Palace.
In many other cities in the country, such as Grodno (west) or Brest (west), there were also protests.
“Why is the legally elected president taking refuge abroad?” Nikolai Diatlov, a 32-year-old bank employee, asked AFP, referring to the opposition leader Svetlana Tijanóvskaya, who claims victory and went into exile in Lithuania after the elections .
“I was shocked by the detention and beatings of peaceful citizens […] I am in favor of new elections because none of my friends voted for Lukashenko ”, declared Nikita Sazanovish, 28 years old.
Exile in poland
Far from backing down, Alexander Lukashenko’s regime responded this week with further arrests during student protests, who went on strike at the start of the school year on September 1.
Several dozen people were arrested during the week, a repressive response that also extends to Belarusian journalists, of whom about twenty were arrested.
The repression was particularly brutal in the first days following the elections: at least three people were killed, dozens were injured and more than 7,000 were arrested during the first demonstrations. In addition, numerous cases of torture and ill-treatment were documented.
Since then, mass arrests have been reduced, but the regime multiplies the pressure against striking workers or opposition figures, several of whom took refuge abroad for fear of arrest.
One of them, Olga Kovalkova, announced on Saturday that she had left for Poland after threats from Belarusian intelligence.
Alexander Lukashenko, who before the elections could not find words harsh enough to denounce Russian attempts at “destabilization”, now denounces a Western “plot” and tries to get closer to Russia.
Moscow intensified its support with the visit to Minsk on Thursday of its prime minister Mikhail Mishustin, in the first trip of this level since the beginning of the crisis, or with the meeting between the holders of the diplomacy of both countries.
During his meeting with Mishustin, Lukashenko said that his services had intercepted a communication between Berlin and Warsaw that showed that the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalni, hospitalized in Berlin, was a Western “forgery” to dissuade Moscow from intervening in Belarus.
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