MOSCOW – They were not surprised by reports of torture, live ammunition and the threat of arrest.
Tens of thousands of factory workers, women clapping white flowers and balloons and young Protestants taking to the streets of cities in Belarus, including Minsk, the capital, for the fifth straight day on Friday.
“Redeem,” they shouted, their song aimed at longtime President Alexander Lukashenko, who faces his biggest challenge since taking power 26 years ago following the fall of the Soviet Union. He is known as the “last dictator of Europe”.
Demonstrations erupted Sunday night as polls closed in Belarus’ presidential election as Lukashenko moved to declare victory with 80 percent of the vote over opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
Employers at state-owned manufacturing companies began Thursday to take part in the protest and strikes calling for Lukashenko to resign began to spread across the country, despite reports of mass arrests and beatings by security guards. At least one protester was killed.
They were joined by thousands of female protesters who formed ‘solidarity chains’ and wore many white T-shirts, ribbons and bracelets, to represent peace, although others had a red stripe, reflecting the old Belarusian flag.
When the crowd in Minsk converted in the parliament building on Independence Square, at least two helmet security officials removed their riot shields, asking women to run ahead to hug them and offer flowers.
Apparently emboldened by the territory of support, Tikhanovskaya – who fled to neighboring Lithuania on Monday after saying her family was threatened – returned on Friday.
Tikhanovskaya, a former English teacher, said in a video boody on YouTube that her countrymen ‘no longer want to live with the old authorities. ”
Tsikhanouskaya, who came out of obscurity a few weeks ago to take her husband’s place in the election campaign after he was imprisoned, admitted that “most of the country” did not believe Lukashenko won the election. .
“We have always said that we should defend our elections with only legal, non-violent means, but the authorities have turned the peaceful protests of the public into a bloodbath,” she said. “The situation is critical.”
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In a separate post on the Telegram messaging app, she called for the establishment of a coordinating committee of labor leaders, political figures and opposition candidates to begin working out a peaceful transition of power.
“We are ready for dialogue with the authorities,” the post said. “Taking into account what is happening in the country, and the need to take urgent measures to restore the rule of law in Belarus, I – Svetlana Tikhanovskaya – begin the establishment of a coordinating council to ensure a transfer of power . “
Her remarks came as accusations of torture and beatings by security forces flooding social media and proliferating online – exacerbating public anger against the government.
Images posted online and checked by NBC News have also been shown allegedly at a police station in Minsk strewn along a courtyard.
Reports of protesters being released from detention centers have detailed accounts of torture and humiliation. Other videos and audio clips shared on social media have apparently tortured the cry of prisoners heard by the authorities.
In a video shared by the independent outlet Mediazona, Minsk residents stood outside one of these detention centers and sang “hang in there” to those held inside.
Another video, published on TikTok, shows infected and threatened Protestants being treated by drugs when they were released from a detention center on Friday.
Authorities in the country – which has neighbors Russia, Poland and Ukraine and has a population of about 9.5 million – said on Thursday that they had arrested around 7,000 people across the country, although they later released about 1,000 people.
Natalya Kochanova, speaker of the upper house of the Belarusian parliament, said on Friday that the release was authorized by Lukashenko after seeing the demands of the labor unions now protesting against him. Kochanova added that Lukashenko promised to investigate the facts behind the arrests.
Those released were “under the obligation not to participate in unauthorized activities, and minors were handed over to their parents,” Kochanova said. “We do not need unrest. We do not need war.”
Lukashenko, 65, who accused a plot with foreign support of destabilizing Belarus and dismissing the protesters as criminals and the unemployed, later came out to directly address state industry employees.
“I’m still alive and I did not flee abroad because some of our well-known, ‘informed’ compatriots rejoice that the president has fled the country and is now abroad,” said Lukashenko, who was once a Soviet -collective farm run.
He warned them that their strikes would destroy the Belarusian economy, adding: “Today you are not producing 10 tractors, they are not going to the market, and tomorrow the Germans will come with the Americans. The Russians will bring their equipment.”
His words seemed to have little effect as more and more workers joined the national strike and took to the streets.
Matthew Bodner told from Moscow and Matthew Mulligan from London.
