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In Minsk, plainclothes law enforcement officers began arresting protesters.
In Minsk, where a protest march is taking place, security agents tried to arrest several protesters and a fight started. TUT.BY reports this on Telegram.
According to journalists, a minibus stopped in front of the KGB building in Minsk. Plainclothes people tried to arrest several men and a fight broke out. The protesters tried to interfere with the arrest, they began to rock the minibus shouting “Let go of me!”
TUT.BY also posted a video of the incident.
A protest march for peace and independence is scheduled for August 30 in Minsk and throughout Belarus. In the country’s capital, the rally is scheduled for 2:00 p.m., the protesters will gather in the Plaza de la Independencia. The organizers of the demonstrations suggest that the protesters bring flowers and creative handmade gifts for President Alexander Lukashenko, whose birthday is on August 30. In other cities of Belarus, protests will also start at 2:00 p.m., people are encouraged to go to the central squares.
The security forces have already withdrawn military material to the capital, Near the Independence Square, where the Belarusian Government House is located, there are rice wagons, a water cannon, and wagons with coils of barbed wire. The square itself is covered with fences, there are uniformed people near them.
Mass protests have been going on in Belarus since August 9. The protesters believe that the results of the presidential elections, which were held from August 4-9, were falsified. According to official data, Lukashenka won with 80.1% of the voters. Opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya came in second with 10.1% of the vote. The rest of the candidates earned less than 2%. At the same time, alternative exit polls showed the opposite picture: Tikhanovskaya’s confident victory.
The Belarusian security forces violently dispersed the demonstrations, in particular with the use of stun grenades, rubber bullets and water cannons. During the protests, more than 7,000 protesters were arrested (many of them have already been released), hundreds were injured and wounded. According to official figures, four protesters died.
The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said on August 11 that the elections in Belarus “were neither free nor fair”, and that the authorities used “a disproportionate and unacceptable violence “against protesters.
On August 28, the EU foreign ministers agreed to impose sanctions on top Belarusian officials due to election fraud and violence against protesters.
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