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MINSK, Belarus – Byelorussian riot police put hundreds of women into vans on Saturday, including a great-grandmother who has become an icon of the protest movement, as opposition protesters demonstrated in Minsk seeking to end the protest movement. the 26 years of government of President Alexander Lukashenko.
The protest was the last in which Belarusian women have taken to the streets with flowers and flags.
The number of detainees on Saturday was much higher than the rally the previous week. The women were detained by riot police in black uniforms and balaclavas, as well as by officers in khaki uniforms and plainclothes officers with face masks.
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Police blocked the women and began putting them into police vans while they stood with their hands clasped, quickly detaining hundreds, an AFP journalist saw. The police picked up some women to get them out.
Rights group Viasna published the names of 328 women detained online, while police spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova told AFP that the number of detainees would be announced on Sunday.
Police detained so many protesters that they ran out of space in the vans, the opposition Coordination Council said.
Women demonstrate in front of law enforcement officers during a demonstration to protest against the results of the presidential elections, in Minsk on September 19, 2020 (TUT.BY / AFP).
About two thousand women participated in the “Bright March”, wearing bright accessories and carrying red and white flags of the protest movement.
Among those arrested on Saturday was Nina Baginskaya, a 73-year-old activist who has become one of the most well-known faces of the protest movement, known for her courageous antics and regularly celebrated with a chant of “Nina! Girl! ”
Police took away the flag and the flowers she was carrying as they pushed her into a van, but left her outside a police station shortly after.
The march was the latest in a series of protests by women calling for the strongman to leave after his disputed victory in last month’s election.
His opposition rival, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, also claimed victory.
Tikhanovskaya, who has taken refuge in Lithuania, condemned the “arbitrary” detentions, saying that police without any identification badges had “brutally detained beautiful and courageous women who were protesting legally and peacefully en masse.”
The opposition Coordination Council, created by Tikhanovskaya’s allies to organize a peaceful handover of power, described the arrests as “a new phase in the escalation of violence against peaceful protesters.”
Women react to Belarusian riot police officers during a demonstration to protest against the results of the presidential elections, in Minsk on September 19, 2020 (TUT.BY / AFP).
Tikhanovskaya warned that protesters were ready to strip riot police officers executing “criminal orders” of anonymity.
Poland-based opposition channel Telegram Nexta published a list of more than 1,000 names and ranges of police criminals, saying it received the data from whistleblowers and would post more if the arrests continued.
Law enforcement officers detain women during a rally to protest against the results of the Belarusian presidential elections in Minsk on September 19, 2020 (TUT.BY / AFP).
Eyewitness accounts of police violence and torture of detainees after the elections have prompted the European Parliament to call for sanctions against Lukashenko and other members of his regime.
The protest came as the opposition was supposed to hold mass demonstrations on Sunday afternoon in Minsk and other cities.
Attempt to silence Tikhanovskaya at the UN
On Friday, Belarus and several allies tried to block a video message from Tikhanovskaya at the UN Human Rights Council, where he urged “the strongest international response” to the Minsk abuses.
Tikhanovskaya demanded “immediate international attention” for her country as she staggers from the brutal crackdown on protests over the disputed re-election.
But his short video message, in a rare urgent debate at the council, had barely begun when Belarus’ ambassador Yuri Ambrazevich demanded it be turned off. He repeatedly interrupted the screening, raising procedural objections and insisting that his words “had no relevance on the merits … on the events that are occurring today.”
Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is seen speaking via video message before a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council on allegations of torture and other serious violations in her country on September 18, 2020 in Geneva. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
It was rejected by the president of the council, Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger.
The debate on the situation of rights in Belarus, requested by the European Union, focused on the violations and repression of the unprecedented demonstrations that broke out after the controversial elections on 9 August.
Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet state for 26 years, claimed to have defeated Tikhanovskaya with 80 percent of the vote.
The leader, who on Thursday warned of a possible “war” with some neighboring countries, has refused to resign and has turned to Russia for support.
Meanwhile, its security forces have detained thousands of protesters, many of whom have accused the police of beatings and torture. Several people have died.
Tikhanovskaya insisted that the country’s violation of its international obligations to respect “human dignity and basic human rights … means that the international community has the right to react in the strongest terms.”
“The scope and brutality of the extensive force used by the regime is a clear violation of all international norms,” he said.
A long list of countries also expressed alarm.
“We have witnessed a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests,” said German Ambassador Michael Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg on behalf of the EU.
It expressed concern about “reports of attacks and torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of peaceful protesters, as well as harassment, intimidation and arrests of opposition leaders.”
Meanwhile, the Minsk envoy, Ambrazevich, criticized the “distorted picture of reality presented by the losers in the elections”, rejecting the accusations of abuse by the authorities.
Belarusian Ambassador Yury Ambrazevich, wearing a protective mask, attends a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council on allegations of torture and other serious violations in the country, on September 18, 2020 in Geneva. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
He insisted that the protesters had been violent and had injured numerous police officers.
Ambrazevich and her counterparts from Russia, Venezuela and China also voiced multiple objections to statements by UN Deputy Director for Rights Nada Al-Nashif and Anais Marin, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of rights in Belarus, saying that they had no place in the debate.
Tikhanovskaya will meet with the European Union’s foreign ministers and the bloc’s diplomatic chief in Brussels on Monday, in a move that Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova condemned as “flirting with a self-proclaimed representative of the Belarusian opposition “.
‘Torture, rape’
Marín told the council that more than 10,000 people had been “abusively arrested for participating in peaceful protests” and regretted that “more than 500 cases of torture, committed by state agents, have been reported to us.”
“I have been informed of allegations of rape, electrocution and other forms of physical and psychological torture,” he told the council via a video link, adding that the perpetrators appeared to be acting with “impunity.”
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko delivers a speech at the Women’s Union forum in Minsk on September 17, 2020. Lukashenko has faced huge protests against his government since the disputed vote and widespread condemnation from the international community for a brutal repression of protesters by their security. cash. (TUT.BY / AFP)
Friday’s debate ended with a vote passing a resolution tabled by the EU insisting that the wide range of serious abuses urgently requires an “independent investigation”.
The voting process was slowed down by Russia, which proposed 17 amendments to the text, all of which were rejected, and in the end the resolution was adopted unchanged by the 47-member council, with 23 in favor, 22 abstentions and only Venezuela and Eritrea. vote against.
The text calls on the Belarusian authorities to “allow independent, transparent and impartial investigations into all allegations of human rights violations in the context of the elections.”
It also calls on Minsk to “guarantee access to justice and reparation for the victims, as well as full accountability for the perpetrators.”
And it calls on the office of the UN chief of human rights, Michelle Bachelet, to closely monitor the situation in the country and present its findings in a report during the next council session in March 2021.
The discussions mark only the sixth time in the council’s 14-year history that it has agreed to hold an “urgent debate,” a special debate within a regular council session.
During its last session in June, the council held an urgent debate on racism and police brutality in the wake of the unrest in the United States and beyond the death of George Floyd.
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