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Images filmed by local media show buses transporting security forces and metal barriers to the city center.
A dozen metro stations in central Minsk have been closed to prevent protesters from gathering. Mobile internet is also restricted.
Earlier this month, the Belarusian opposition leader, Sviatlana Cichanouskaya, set Lukashenko a two-week deadline for his resignation, an end to the violence and the release of political prisoners. Otherwise, he warned, there will be a general strike.
During a meeting with Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod in Copenhagen last Friday, he called for new elections “as soon as possible”. And then he declared in a separate statement that the date of the new election must be announced before the end of the year.
True, he acknowledged that it is unclear how many Belarusians will answer the call to join the general strike on Monday, as many people are intimidated by the authorities and fear losing their jobs in state-owned companies.
“I know that a lot of people are afraid of losing their jobs,” he told AFP. – We do not organize strikes ourselves. It is up to people to decide if they are ready or not. “
The European Union (EU) and Western countries have imposed sanctions on Lukashenko’s allies for electoral fraud and police violence against protesters.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke by phone with Lukashenko on Saturday to call for the release of a well-known US political strategist who was arrested in Belarus before the elections.
Vitaly Škliarov, a member of the Scientific Society of Harvard University, has advised candidates for the presidency of the United States, Russia and Ukraine. He was placed under house arrest earlier this week.
The European Parliament awarded the Sakharov Prize to the anti-Lukashenko movement on Thursday.
Additional:
On the last day of the so-called “people’s ultimatum”, protests were held in Belarus. Human rights activists report that six dozen people have been arrested during them.
According to the unregistered Vesna human rights center in Belarus, the list of detainees includes almost 60 people. According to human rights defenders, people were detained in thirteen cities of the country: Minsk, Grodno, Gomel, Brest, Mogilev, Recica, Minsk, Lida, Borisov, Novopolotsk, Vitebsk, Liachavičy and Žodina.
It is reported that several strong jokes were produced at the Minsk Central District Internal Affairs Board, through which a column of participants in the unauthorized opposition protest passed. Witnesses told Interfax that light sound grenades were used against the protesters. People began to flee to the surrounding courtyards. A few more jokes were heard later.
Information on the victims is not yet available.
Added at 18:37
From Minsk, reports of protesters injured by rubber bullets
The Belarusian opposition media reports that at least some of its participants in the now traditional mass protests that took place this Sunday have been injured by firing rubber bullets at protesters in OMON units.
Witnesses to the events told Interfax that several sound grenade attacks had been carried out in the Orlovsk district of Minsk. Several protesters immediately sought medical attention, including a girl injured in the leg and also an injured man, as well as a man wounded in the abdomen.
According to the protesters, OMON used rubber bullets against the protesters.
Opposition Telegram reports that security forces fired several series of rubber bullets at the protesters and killed them.
The Belarusian Interior Ministry has confirmed to Interfax that the security forces have used special measures, without specifying what they are.
Added at 19:10
At least 110 government-sanctioned protesters were arrested in Belarus on Sunday, the Viasna human rights center said.
A list of the names of the detained protesters is now published on the Center’s website, now 112, and the list is constantly updated.
According to human rights defenders, the arrests were recorded in the capital Minsk, as well as in Brest, Bobruisk, Borisov, Vitebsk, Grodno, Žlobin, Lida, Liachovichi, Mogilev, Novopolotsk, Pinsk, Pechica.
Among those arrested are opposition politician Dmitrijus Daškevičius and five journalists.
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