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During protests against the ruler Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus, security forces cracked down on protesters. Videos on the Telegram news channel on Sunday showed how people in the capital Minsk fled the emergency services in disguise. You could also see protesters being carried away and sometimes beaten by police officers. According to the opposition movement, water cannons were also used to separate people.
135 people were arrested, said the civil rights group Spring 96. The Wiasna Center for Human Rights listed the names of more than 70 people arrested. According to opposition figures, more than 30,000 people have been arrested since protests began in Belarus in August. Lukashenko’s opponents accuse the president of rigging the summer elections to extend his 26-year term. Lukashenko, however, denies electoral fraud and refuses to resign.
Thousands of people participated in the protests that Sunday. They first met in residential areas and then formed larger groups. According to the Nasha Niva media organization, there were more than 120 small and large demonstrations in the capital Minsk and other cities. In the suburbs of Minsk, protesters marched through the streets waving red and white striped flags, a symbol of the opposition. The participants in the demonstration shouted “Long live Belarus”.
Tichanovskaya receives human rights award
Faced with retaliation by the government, many citizens have already left the country and have sought refuge in Lithuania or Poland, for example. Opposition leader Svetlana Tichanowskaya, who now lives in Lithuania, congratulated her compatriots on Sunday for “resisting repression, violence and cold.” Belarusians wanted to live in a “free and democratic country,” Tichanovskaya wrote on Twitter.
“This Sunday is the 18th consecutive Sunday in which people show that they are ready to continue defending their rights,” said the civil rights activist. The 38-year-old ran against the head of state in the controversial presidential elections on August 9 and then fled abroad after massive government pressure.
Tichanowskaja wants to meet Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin on Monday. He will then travel to Brussels and hold talks with EU foreign relations official Josep Borrell and members of the EU parliament, the opposition leader said. “The most important task of this visit is to stop the violence and anarchy against the Belarusians.” On Wednesday, Tichanovskaya received the renowned Sakharov Prize for Human Rights from the European Parliament.
