Belarus threatened on Monday to shoot protesters to stop President Alexander Lukashenko’s protests, as EU foreign ministers agreed to impose sanctions on the strong man personally.
The use of genuine firearms would mark a primary escalation in the two-month standoff between Lukashenko and the protesters, who organized non-violent demonstrations against their disputed re-election in August and the ill-treatment and torture of detainees.
The warning came after security forces seriously suppressed protests against Lukashenko on Sunday, which led EU foreign ministers to agree that it is time to sanction Lukashenko himself.
Later on Monday, police used tear fuel and crippling grenades as opposed to retirees organizing a normal protest march, prompting opposition outrage.
Protests broke out when Lukashenko won the August 9 election against an opposition candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who claims to be the real winner.
The first deputy minister of the Belarusian Interior, Gennady Kazakevich, said in a video that “we will not leave the streets and that security forces and internal troops will use insurrection equipment and deadly weapons if necessary. “
So far, police have admitted water cannons, rubber bullets and crippling grenades to disperse the protesters.
Kazakevich said the protests were “extremely radical,” and said stones and bottles were thrown at police on Sunday through knife-armed protesters, who built barricades and set tyres on fire.
“This has nothing to do with civil protest,” said the deputy minister, involving “groups of wrestlers, radicals, anarchists and football fans. “
– Tears by ‘grandmothers’ –
Belarus faced attempts to revive the “chaos of the 1990s” and foster the “color revolutions” that overthrew pro-Kremlin leaders in ex-Soviet states, he said.
Yours comes when police have used some of the toughest tactics against protesters to date.
On Monday, strong men with black hoods and carry-ons collided with a crowd of middle-aged and older women wearing banners with slogans like “Grandmas Are With People,” a video clip from independent newscast Tut. by.
“We deployed deafening grenades from a Osa flare and fired tear fuel when citizens began to show their aggression,” Minsk police spokesman Roman Lashkevich told Russian news firm RIA Novosti.
“Today, the regime has crossed another line,” Tikhanovskaya said in a statement, noting that older Belarusians were once Lukashenko’s top unwavering electorate.
The men were shown spraying from inside their cars as protesters in the detention of protesters threw flowers at them and shouted “Fascists!And “Come on!”
Later, protesters in Minsk blocked roads and set tyres on fire as army cars passed through the city centre, the Tut. by.
During Sunday’s mass protests, police deployed water cannons and stun grenades in Minsk, arresting more than 700 people across the country, the Interior Ministry said.
The crackdown has ended with any expectation that lukashenko’s criminal will hold more than 4 hours of conversations with critics in crime over the weekend marked a shift in focus.
Two opposition-linked contractors who attended the assembly were arrested after the talks.
Kazakevich was the first time the government explicitly threatened to use firearms against opposition protesters.
But independent newspaper Nasha Niva posted a video on Sunday in which internal troops gave the impression of running towards protesters while threatening them with weapons.
When protests broke out in August, police admitted to open the chimney against protesters in the southern city of Brest, killing one, it was not known whether live ammunition had been used.
They said they acted in self-defense because the men were armed with iron bars, but the relatives of the dead man said he was walking down the street.
– Sanctioned Lukashenko –
EU foreign ministers agreed on Monday that Lukashenko’s call deserves to subscribe to a list of 40 of his officials already sanctioned across the EU with asset bans and freezes, diplomatic resources said.
The EU refrained from sanctioning Lukashenko himself, hoping to persuade him to interact in the discussion with the opposition forces to the crisis, but the protesters’ remedy on Sunday was the last straw.
German Chancellor Heiko Maas said earlier that the Belarusian leader is among those sanctioned because “violence continues, perpetrated through the Lukashenko regime. “
The EU, along with the US and other countries, rejected the effects of the Nine August election and said it saw Lukashenko as the valid president.
Analysts say the motion of protest helps keep him under pressure, but continues from security forces and, for now, Russia’s key ally, helps keep him in power.
strawberries-like-am / jj