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Instead of in classrooms, Belarusian students are currently on the streets. Numerous protesters were again arrested today. Meanwhile, the head of state Lukashenko conjures up a civil war.
By Martha Wilczynski, ARD Studio Moscow
For her, the academic year did not begin in the classroom, but in the street. Several hundred students in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, responded to the opposition’s call for today’s general strike. Waving white-red-white flags, they shouted: “We are not afraid!”
“We just show that we are there. The students are with the people,” says one of them. “I am not afraid to withdraw or other possible repression in relation to my studies. What happens to our country is important to me.”
The other protesters see it in a similar way. “We have something we fight for,” explains one student. “If they arrest us for that, it was worth it for us. We are not doing anything illegal.”
The arrests continued today as protesters attempted to form a human chain. There were actual chases between the students and OMON’s special forces. But also people away from the large protest marches were arrested by men in civilian clothes on the street. The protesters call them “Tichari”, the silent ones.
Despite the actions of the security forces, many people took to the streets again at night: several hundred women participated in a protest march in Minsk.
Lukashenko warns of massacres of his followers
It’s time for everyone to get back to work, said Head of State Alexander Lukashenko during his visit to the city of Baranowitschi, where he officially opened the new school year at a vocational school. “I want to protect what we have been creating with our own hands for a quarter of a century,” he said.
But Lukashenko also adopted a harsher tone, accusing the opposition of wanting to provoke a massacre. “We brought this country out of the ruins. There are thousands and millions of people behind me. I know that when THEY come to power, they will tear everything apart and start massacring these people and their children.”
The opposition founds a new party
As Lukashenko verbally conjured another civil war today, the democracy movement is working on political solutions. Opposition leader Svetlana Tichanowskaja’s campaign partner, Maria Kolesnikova, announced yesterday that she would found a new party. The name: “Wmestje” – together. Without Tichanovskaya, but with Viktor Babariko, whose electoral body was headed by Kolesnikova.
Babariko was arrested in June for alleged money laundering and fraud, and was therefore unable to run for election. In a written statement, Tichanovskaya made a positive statement about Perte’s planned establishment, but clearly indicated that the opposition movement’s top priority must remain ensuring that new elections are fair and free in the country.
