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The country has been holding massive protests for the fourth month in a row since the presidential elections on August 9, announced by Aliaksandr Lukashenko, who has ruled the country since 1994. The opposition and Western democracies believe these elections are rigged.
Lukashenko’s opponents say his real winner is his rival, Sviatlana Cichanouskaya, who took the place of her imprisoned husband in the election campaign and quickly became popular, continuing to take to the streets of Minsk, the capital, every weekend. week to demand the resignation of the president and new elections.
In recent weeks, officials have resorted to severe repression, detaining hundreds of people and denying protesters a choice in central Minsk.
This prompted Lukashenko’s opponents to change tactics and began inviting people to hold small rallies in each district of the capital.
According to local media, there were around 20 such gatherings across the city on Sunday.
“Large columns have gathered in all Minsk districts without exception. Lukashenko’s militia is desperately running from district to district,” opposition channel Nexta Live, which is helping coordinate the ongoing demonstrations, told Telegram.
As in previous weeks, some metropolitan stations in the capital were closed and mobile internet connection was restricted.
Many security agents were deployed and the portal tut.by reported that incendiary grenades and tear gas were used against the protesters.
The human rights organization Viasna, for its part, reported that at least 50 people had been arrested during the protests. A list of the names of the detained protesters is published on the Center’s website and is constantly updated.
Most of the people were arrested in Minsk, but there were also people in Vitebsk, in the Baraulian settlement near Minsk, in the Grabin region of Karabci.
“Everyone is taking to the streets of their district and seeing tens, hundreds and thousands of supporters,” Cichanouskaya, 38, said in a video posted on Telegram on Saturday.
He added that Belarusians are “a proud, courageous and peaceful nation that has learned the price of freedom and will never agree to live without it.”
The leaders of several Western countries refused to acknowledge the results of the last elections and expressed their support for S. Cichanouskaja, who was forced to leave for Lithuania shortly after the vote.
The European Union has imposed sanctions on Lukashenko and many of his allies on suspicion of electoral fraud and the repression of protesters by the militia.
Belarusian security forces detained thousands of protesters in the first days of the demonstrations. Many of them later reported torture and abuse in custody.
Lukashenko, strongly supported by Moscow, in turn refuses to resign and instead proposes a constitutional reform to appease the opposition.
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