Women parade through the streets to protest against the results of the presidential elections in Minsk (AFP)
KYIV: Some 10,000 women marched loudly through the Belarusian capital on Saturday, banging on pots and pans and crying out for the resignation of the country’s authoritarian president on the 35th consecutive day of major anti-government protests.
Many carried portraits of Maria Kolesnikova, leader of the Coordination Council of the opposition seeking a new election for the former Soviet nation of 9.5 million people.
She was jailed this week after police tried to force her to leave the country.
Her lawyer says Kolesnikova was taken to the Ukrainian border, but tore up her passport and refused to leave. Belarus.
Others carried signs that read “You painted my heart with blue pain,” in reference to President Alexander Lukashenko’s claim that some women had painted themselves to appear beaten by police beatings.
Lukashenko refuses to meet with the council and most of its leaders have been arrested or have left the country.
The protests began on August 9 after a presidential election that officials said gave Lukashenko a sixth term with 80 percent support.
Opponents and some poll workers say the election results were rigged. Some protesters have shown bruises from a violent police crackdown in the days after the elections, when more than 7,000 protesters were arrested.
The protests are the largest and most widespread in Lukashenko’s 26 years in power.
Sunday demonstrations in the capital Minsk have repeatedly drawn crowds of more than 100,000.
Protests have broken out in other major cities and strikes have affected some of the country’s main state industries, which were previously a base of support for the 66-year-old leader.
Lukashenko met with senior officials from the country’s security agencies on Saturday.
Throughout the unrest, he has rejected any concessions, has repeatedly accused Belarus’ western neighbors of preparing to overthrow their government, and has shown aggressive defiance, including walking with an automatic rifle through the grounds of his presidential residence. .
As the protests persist, questions arise about a possible action by Russia to shore up his regime.
Lukashenko will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, in his first face-to-face contact since the riots began.
Putin has said he is ready to send Russian police to Belarus if the protests turn violent, stoking fears that Moscow may take steps to annex its neighbor.
The countries have a union agreement that provides for close political, economic and military ties, although Lukashenko has repeatedly expressed concern that Russia wants to absorb Belarus entirely.
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