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Sunday’s violent intervention followed the sensational news on Saturday: Lukashenko, who was recently installed as Belarusian president despite national protests against alleged electoral fraud, had sat in an hour-long meeting with opposition leaders. incarcerated in the KGB detention center in Minsk.
According to state media, the meeting lasted four and a half hours. A photo sent by the presidential administration shows that Lukashenko is sitting at the same table as several members of the opposition coordinating council, which the authorities have described as illegal and a threat to national security.
The table is oval, not round. It is a symbolic difference from the “round table” in Poland in 1989, where the communist regime and the popular Solidarity movement discussed a peaceful transition to free elections and democracy.
A man is kidnapped by masked security personnel in Minsk on Sunday.
Photo: TASS
There are more, more significant differences between Warsaw and Minsk: in Poland, all political prisoners had been released from prisons. In Belarus, virtually all opposition leaders remain imprisoned or forced to leave the country.
The biggest difference is that Lukashenko shows no signs of being willing to give up power, or even share it with anyone.
Of course, it is absurd for the head of state to go to the KGB prison to discuss the future of the country with a group of political prisoners. Still, the reunion is a historic event. During his 26 years in office, Lukashenko has never done anything like it. Otherwise his approach has been to hit protesters with brutal force and make sure the most uncomfortable opponents “disappear” without a trace.
According to the state news agency Belta, Lukashenko wanted to discuss changes to the constitution. Referring to the massive protests of the last two months against the official result of the presidential elections on August 9, he said:
– The constitution is not rewritten on the street.
Nothing was revealed about what opposition leaders said at the meeting. They had been rushed and unannounced to meet Lukashenko from various prisons. Among those Lukashenko spoke were several members of the Coordination Council headed by Svyatlana Tsichanouskaja, the opposition presidential candidate, from her exile in Lithuania.
At the table was Viktar Babaryka, one of the presidential candidates who was jailed at an early stage. However, another candidate, blogger Siarhej Tsinhanouski (Svjatlana’s husband, whom she replaced in the elections) was not included.
There are many reasons for this that Lukashenko begins talks with sectors of the opposition after two months of ruthless repression against all dissidents.
One is that the citizenry, despite the brutal repression, has not been intimidated, and that it realizes that it has become increasingly isolated.
A clue can be found in the fact that Viktar Babaryka has good depressions in Moscow. He is a former director of Belgazprombank, which is owned by the Russian gas giant Gazprom.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Lukashenko recently met in Sochi, may have had something to do with the meeting. It is worth noting that Putin in Sochi just mentioned a constitutional reform as a way out of the crisis in Belarus. And he also spoke about the need for a “dialogue” in Belarus.
One sign that something is happening is that Svjatlana Tsichanouskaja on Saturday, for the first time in four months, was able to speak with her imprisoned husband on the phone.
– The peaceful protests have paid off. The regime has understood that it is necessary to speak with the Belarusians. But we are not fooled. You cannot talk in a prison cell. In the face of real negotiations, political prisoners must be released, he commented on his Telegram site.
Thousands of people took part in demonstrations critical of the regime in Minsk on Sunday, according to Reuters. At least a dozen protesters were arrested.
Read more: Belarus’ opposition leader sees Sweden as a suitable place for negotiations
