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With a large number of security forces in the capital, Minsk, they have tried to stop a mass demonstration. In the afternoon there were more than 120 arrests. The armored personnel carriers approached in front of the presidential palace.
By Christina Nagel, ARD Studio Moscow
“Lukashenko, you are fired!” Protesters shouted in Minsk. For the third weekend in a row, tens of thousands are on the streets of the Belarusian capital. They loudly demand the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko, who is celebrating his 66th birthday today.
Birthday serenades are different from state media, where long life and energy are wished with a lot of pathos. Young women standing in front of the cordoned off Plaza de la Independencia sing about an old man they have now unintentionally had. They left pumpkins, a traditional sign that they despise him. Other activists bury the last dictatorship in a coffin. Lukashenko’s rival, Svetlana Tichanovskaya, is at the wheel of a cardboard prisoner transporter.
Creative protest
The founder of the human rights organization Vjasna, Ales Bjaljatski, explains in an interview with the news portal “Nastojaschije Vremja” that this is a creative and peaceful mass protest that irritates the power apparatus. Also because there has never been anything like it. “The intimidation tactic that was always used otherwise no longer works. People can no longer be stopped,” says Byalyatski. The power apparatus now has to deal not only with human rights activists and opposition activists, who in the past could be very easily neutralized, but with millions of Belarusians. “It could be that Lukashenko doesn’t have enough resources.”
Large contingent against protesters
Today he showed the security resources that the government has. Large places were secured with barbed wire and armed soldiers. Water cannons and special vehicles were used. In the late afternoon, armored personnel carriers arrived in front of the presidential palace. Martial images, which the protesters recognize with the shout: “Tribunal”.
But nobody will back down because of that, says Alexej, who is present again at one of the demonstrations: “They will not attack such a large crowd.” In the past few days they had tried to intercept people one by one, he continues, so now the people came together as a crowd.
A huge mass of people, for whom some members of the Coordination Council try to engage in conversation with those responsible in the presidential palace. Maria Kolesnikova is one of them. She demands entry, but the security forces demand distance. The crowd reacts, but there is no dialogue.
