Belarusian great-grandmother among more than 300 detainees in Minsk

Belarusian police in riot gear stormed a demonstration on Saturday, taking hundreds of protesters away by truck.

Around 2,000 women participated in the protest march on Saturday, the day before the opposition announced a new mass demonstration. They demand that President Alexander Lukashenko resign after 26 years in power.

Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, taking hundreds of protesters away by truck. They were dragged into police patrols and in a short time several hundred were arrested, reports the journalist from the AFP news agency.

The police have not given numbers. The human rights organization Viasna has published a list with the names of 314 people who were arrested, reports the DPA news agency.

– Go for a walk

Among them was prominent activist Nina Baginskaya, a 73-year-old great-grandmother who has become one of the most famous faces of the protesters. The retired geologist participated in his first demonstration against Soviet rule in 1988 and has often been at the forefront during the ongoing wave of protests.

She has been arrested many times, but not without resistance. In August, a video of Baginskaya walking past two masked policemen with a flag in hand went viral on social media.

– I will go for a walk, he said defiantly – which many also shouted during the protest march on Saturday.

Published

Police took the flag and flowers she was carrying from Baginskaya and pushed her into a van, but dropped her in front of a police station shortly after.

On Saturday night it was not known how many other protesters had been released.

Police arrested so many that cars were packed and around 10 women were released on the spot. Others managed to escape and sought refuge in a nearby nail salon, the online newspaper Tut.by reports.

Journalist almost broke

Among those detained was a journalist whose nose was broken, says the Belarusian Journalists Association.

The protest march is the latest in a series of female-dominated demonstrations against the authoritarian president following his controversial election victory in August.

Opposition contender Svetlana Tikhanovskaya also declared victory in the presidential elections.

Tribute from Lithuania

Since her exile in Lithuania, Tikhanovskaya celebrates the women’s march.

– They have scared and pressured women for the second month in a row. But despite this, the Belarusians continue their peaceful protest and show their fantastic strength, she said in a greeting video on Saturday.

The protests by women in Belarus began in the wake of extreme violence used by Lukashenko’s forces against detained protesters.

Women dressed in white began to form human chains and marched through the capital Minsk and other cities, carrying flowers. Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, taking hundreds of protesters away by truck. But last weekend, the police intervened with a heavy hand and arrested dozens of women in a similar protest.

Tikhanovskaja til Brussel

Official results gave Lukashenko 80 percent of the vote in the August 9 elections, but the opposition and some election officials say the results have been rigged.

The EU does not recognize the outcome of the elections and has announced sanctions. On Monday, Tikhanovskaya will meet with the foreign ministers of the EU countries and will speak at the union’s elected assembly in Brussels.

Since the elections, large demonstrations have taken place in various cities across the country and up to 200,000 are estimated to have participated in some of Sunday’s protests in Minsk.

Several prominent members of the opposition have been jailed, while others have been forced to leave the country. Thousands of protesters have been arrested.