The Belarusian government intensified the arrests of warring political parties and strike leaders on Monday, after Sunday saw the most recent unprecedented demonstration, the disputed re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko.
When lukashenko’s 26-year reign of protest entered its third week, the guy known as “Europe’s last dictator” responded with new rhetoric and martial images.
More importantly, Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich called for wondering about her ties to the opposition.
Belarusian news firm “Belta” published photographs of President Alexander Lukashenko holding an automatic rifle and dressed in a bulletproof vest when he arrived at his in Minsk, not far from where opposition protests were taking place on Sunday night.
Alexievich, who won the Nobel Prize in 2015, supported opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and is a member of the Coordination Council created through her allies to oversee a nonviolent transition from power, the 72-year-old publisher did not attend its sessions. .
The Investigative Committee convened Alexievich for questioning himself Wednesday as a witness in an ongoing investigation into the creation of the board, focusing on alleged calls to take power.
Another member of the presidium, former Arts Minister and diplomat Pavel Latushko, will be on Tuesday.
Excerpt from a video posted through the Belarusian state-owned company “Belta” shows President Alexander Lukashenko holding an automatic rifle and dressed in a bulletproof vest in Minsk Photo: BELTA / –
The announcement came hours after police reported the arrest of two members of the Coordinating Council on suspicion of organizing illegal strikes.
Meanwhile, a senior American diplomat met with Tikhanovskaya in Lithuania after tens of thousands of others participated in some of the largest demonstrations in the country’s recent history for a consecutive time on Sunday.
The opposition said two members of its Coordination Council arrested Monday in Belarus Photo: AFP / Sergei GAPON
Tikhanovskaya fled to neighboring Lithuania after the Elections on 9 August claiming to have won opposing Lukashenko. His insistence on his own crushing victory and police violence against protesters provoked mass protests against his government.
The opposition said two members of its coordinating council were arrested on Monday: Sergei Dylevsky, an employee of a tractor factory who gged as leader of the strike, and Olga Kovalkova, a member of Tikhanovskaya.
Tikhanovskaya’s allies shaped the council this month to oversee efforts for a nonviolent power transition.
U. S. Undersecretary of State Stephen Biegun (left), U. S. Undersecretary of State Stephen Biegun, met with opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in Lithuania and called her “a very person. “Photo: AFP / PETRAS MALUKAS
“We’re under pressure. This morning, two members of the chair of the Coordinating Council were arrested,” presidium member Liliya Vlasova said at a press conference.
Vlasova, a lawyer and mediator, said Dylevsky and Kovalkova accused of illegally organizing a strike, an administrative offence.
A video of a witness’s cell phone posted through the Online Tut. through news page showed that Dylevsky and Kovalkova were being taken to a police van, monitored by uniformed personnel at the Belarusian tractor factory.
Timeline of post-election riots in Belarus Photo: AFP / Gal ROMA
Three other people were arrested On Monday night on the sidelines of an opposition demonstration in the capital Minsk.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas suggested President Lukashenko “not to stay in violence, respect the rights of protesters” Photo: POOL / VALENTYN OGIRENKO
“We those government movements will surely be illegal,” Vlasova said. “We’re negotiators. “
Vlasova said investigators quoted her for questioning later on Monday.
In the Soligorsk city commercial, police arrested one strike leader at the Belaruskaly potash factory, Anatoly Bokun, and another, Alexander Lavrinovich, at the MZKT factory, which manufactures heavy trucks, factory staff told AFP.
U. S. Undersecretary of State Stephen Biegun met with Tikhanovskaya in Lithuania and called her “a very person. “
He condemned “the violation of human rights and the brutality we have noticed in Belarus,” and said Belarusians will have to “determine their own future. “
Tikhanovskaya said Lukashenko “does not have the opinion of the other Belarusians or the foreign community. “
In Ukraine, Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, called on Lukashenko to “not take on violence, to respect the rights of protesters. “
The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone with Lukashenko on Monday, the most recent of a series of calls between the two leaders, whose countries are strongly linked.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised protesters for their lack of “provocations” and said security forces behaved “very appropriately” at Sunday’s demonstration.
Although police did not take strong action at the time, the opposition warned Monday that those who participated could be arrested.
While the giant crowd of protesters was organizing their unauthorized march through Minsk, Lukashenko made a show of force.
Images published through his press workplace showed him landing in his Minsk apartment with his 15-year-old son Nikolai, either in bulletproof vests and in possession of attack rifles. He then praised the police who held a heavily fortified barricade as “beautiful guys. “
On Monday, the chairmanship and official news firm Belta used the photographs in a playful music montage, titled “Belarus will not hesitate. “It featured scenes of heavily armed policemen and warnings that Lukashenko will impose “order. “
The best friend of Tikhanovskaya’s crusade and a member of the coordinating council, Maria Kolesnikova, on Monday called for an official investigation into how Nikolai, a minor, allowed lukashenko to be brought in and ridiculed.
“If he thinks that 80% of Belarusians voted for him, why is he hiding with fear the barbed cord and those chains of ‘pretty boys’?”