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The Belarusian capital police have cracked down on a women’s protest march demanding the resignation of the country’s president.
Agents arrested more than 200 protesters in Minsk on Saturday, including an elderly woman who has become a symbol of the six weeks of protest that have rocked the country since its disputed presidential elections.
More than 2,000 women participated in the march in Minsk.
Belarus has witnessed an unprecedented wave of large protests that began after the presidential elections on August 9.
Officials said President Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term in office with 80 percent support in that vote, but opponents and some poll workers say the results were rigged.
During Lukashenko’s 26-year tenure, he has consistently cracked down on the opposition and the independent media.
Large demonstrations have taken place in cities across the country since the vote, and some Sunday protests in Minsk have drawn crowds estimated at 200,000.
The human rights group Viasna said more than 200 people were arrested during Saturday’s march.
“There were so many people detained that lines formed at the prisoner transports,” Viasna member Valentin Stepanovich told The Associated Press.
Among those arrested was Nina Bahinskaya, a 73-year-old ex-geologist whose defiance has made her a popular figure in the protests.
Many of the women in Saturday’s march chanted “We are walking!”, Referring to when the police told Ms. Bahinskaya that she was participating in an unauthorized protest and she replied, “I am taking a walk.”
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenko’s main opponent in the elections, praised the women’s march in a video statement from Lithuania, where she took refuge after the elections.
“They have scared and pressured women for the second month, but despite this, Belarusians continue their peaceful protest and show their incredible strength,” he said.
Several senior members of the Coordination Council that the opposition has created to push for a new election have been jailed and others have been forced to leave the country. Maxim Znak, a prominent member of the council, declared a hunger strike in prison on Friday.
Last month, thousands of protesters were arrested, some of whom showed deep bruises from beatings by police. Still, that did not stop the protests from growing to include strikes in major factories that had previously been a source of support for the embattled Mr. Lukashenko.
In a new strategy to stop Sunday’s large demonstrations, the Belarusian attorney general’s office said it had located parents who took their children to opposition rallies. – AP
