Riot police in Belarus amassed lots of women, adding a great-grandmother, who is an icon of the protest movement, in vans on Saturday as opposition protesters piled up in Minsk to end President Alexander Lukashenko’s 26-year rule.
The protest was the last in which Belarusian women took to the streets with flowers and flags.
The number of detainees on Saturday was much higher than last week’s rally. The women were arrested by policemen in black uniforms and hoods, as well as by officers in khaki uniforms and police officers dressed as civilians dressed in face masks.
Police blocked the women and began putting them in police vans while keeping their hands tied, temporarily arresting hundreds, an AFP reporter said.
IMAGES Riot police arrest veteran activist Nina Baginskaya and several other women as opposition protesters march through the Belarusian capital Minsk to call for an end to President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime. Approximately two thousand women participated in the “Bright March”, dressed in bright clothing accessories and red and white flags of the protest movement Photo: TUT. By
The Rights Group Viasna posted online the names of 328 detainees, while police spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova told the AFP that the number of detainees would be announced on Sunday.
Police arrested so many protesters who ran out of vans, the opposition coordination council said.
Nearly two thousand women took part in the “Sparkling March”, dressed in bright accessories and with red and white flags of the protest movement.
Among those arrested Saturday was Nina Baginskaya, a 73-year-old activist who has become one of the best-known faces of the protest movement, known for her brave antics and celebrated with a song from “Nina!Nina!”
Police took away the flag and flowers he was carrying when he pushed her into a van, but dropped it at a police station soon after.
Nearly two thousand women took part in the “Bright March”, dressed in bright accessories and with red and white flags from the Motion of Protest Photo: TUT. BY / –
The march is the latest in a series of women’s protests calling on the strong man to leave after his disputed victory in last month’s election.
His opposition rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya won.
Tikhanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania, condemned “arbitrary” arrests and said that police without any identity cards had “rudely detained in charming and courageous herds protesting legally and peacefully. “
The Opposition Coordination Council, created through Tikhanovskaya’s allies to organize a handover of nonviolent power, described the arrests as “a novelty in escalating violence against nonviolent protesters. “
Police arrested so many protesters who ran out in their Foto: TUT van. BY / –
Tikhanovskaya warned that the protesters were in a position to strip the insurrectional police that he was executing “criminal orders” of anonymity.
Poland-based opposition channel Telegram presented a list of more than 1,000 names and ranks of police, saying it had gained the knowledge of whistleblowers and would publish more if arrests continued.
Reports of police violence and torture of detainees after the election led the European Parliament to call for sanctions against Lukashenko and members of his regime.
The protesters chanted slogans such as “Get out, you and your insurrectional police!”And “We can win!”
One of the symptoms read: “Our protest has a woman’s face,” a reference to the name of an e-book through Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich, who supported the cause of the opposition.
“I’ll walk to the end, until we claim victory, because we’re right,” said one protester, Irina, a 50-year-old programmer.
Some of the women controlled to escape and took refuge in a nearby nail bar, News Tut. by reported.
The demonstration came here when the opposition was due to conduct mass protests on Sunday afternoon in Minsk and other cities.
Tikhanovskaya plans to meet with european Union ministers and the bloc’s diplomatic leader in Brussels on Monday, a resolution that Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned as “flirting with a self-proclaimed representative of the Belarusian opposition. “
Women’s protests began in Belarus after Lukashenko used excessive violence in opposition to detained protesters.
The women began forming human chains and crossed Minsk and other cities dressed in white clothes and flowers in non-violent demonstrations that the police allowed in the first place.
Last weekend, police violently arrested dozens of people at a similar women’s demonstration.