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Ten weeks after the questionable presidential elections in Belarus, large demonstrations were held again in Minsk on Sunday, where rallies demanded democratic rights and freedoms and the resignation of the country’s dictatorial president, Alexander Lukashenko.
Russian Interfax estimates that around 30,000 participated in Sunday’s protests. It’s a smaller crowd than in August and September, when various demonstrations drew more than 100,000 people.
On Monday it was announced that the Interior Ministry had given the green light to national police and troops to use sharp military weapons when intervening against protesters.
– If necessary, we will use special equipment and military weapons. We will not leave the streets, said the First Deputy Minister of the Interior, Gennady Kazakevich then.
Information on hard knocks, which resembled the sound of distraction grenades, arrived from Minsk on Sunday, writes Reuters. About 50 people have been arrested by the police, according to Interfax.
Arrest in Minsk on Sunday.
Photo: AFP / TT
The demonstrations in Belarus began after the August 9 elections, when Alexander Lukashenko, in a highly contested election, won 80 percent of the vote. President Lukashenko has been in power in the country since 1994 and all elections since then have been deemed undemocratic.
In the ten weeks since the elections, a total of 13,000 people have been arrested. Including opposition leaders who have not left the country. The regime has also cracked down on the country’s independent media and foreign journalists who covered the demonstrations.
Before today’s protests, nearly 1,400 protesters had been injured, according to a report by the independent Russian news site Mediazona.
Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania, asked Lukashenko last week to resign before October 25. If that doesn’t happen, he will face strikes across the country that would paralyze Belarus, Tikhanovskaya said.
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