An organization of protesters, young and old, gathered right outside on the barbed wire fence, made their voices heard through the singing. Accompanied by a guitar, they sang “Go away, go in peace, it is the will of the Belarusians”, to the guards of the no. 1 detention center.
It is the main Belarusian KGB prison in Minsk, and the approximately 200 protesters were there to call for the release of Sergey Tikhanovsky, the blogger, activist and husband of opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
Tikhanovsky has been detained here since his arrest in May. Tuesday marked his birthday. His wife and children fled to neighboring Lithuania after replacing him as a candidate and opposing President Alexander Lukashenko in the Belarusian elections, which many say were rigged in favor of the lifelong leader.
On Tuesday, Tikhanovskaya gave the impression in a video clip, asking protesters to act on behalf of her husband and others like him. “He and other political prisoners are sitting motionless, but he asks you not to sit down. Because you don’t stand still and don’t do everything you can to live in a country conducive to life,” he said.
On the same day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on the Belarusian government to release its political prisoners.
In an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Merkel said Lukashenko deserves to “start a discussion with the opposition and social teams to the crisis,” according to German government spokesman Steffen Seibert.
Siebert said Merkel had suggested to the Belarusian government to repeat violence against non-violent protesters, thousands of whom have marched in the Belarusian capital in recent days, in what is believed to be the largest demonstrations in the country’s history.
Last week we noticed the refurbishment of Minsk: once it was an orderly city, or even numb, in recent days, the capital has looked more like a giant festival site.
The other people here have evacuated decades of concern in the area for a few days. Over the weekend, dressed in white, they piled up in the streets, their voices united in a roar of rage opposite their strongman leader, Lukashenko.
“Belarus has awakened, ” said Egor Yemelyanov. Wrapped in a white and red flag, with the hoarse voice of making an opposition slogans song, he told CNN: “I can’t help but cry, my center is filled with so much joy now, even after all that ugliness that has happened… This is the first time I’ve been proud of Belarus.
It was a scene that would have occurred just a week ago, when other people got caught in the streets of the suburbs once asleep through plainclomps or taken out of their cars to be beaten with batons.
In the face of such violence, Belarusians were praised for their nonviolent protests: no cars were burned, no windows were destroyed, there were no dirty streets after the weekend demonstrations.
Last week’s police crackdown was aimed at ending the riots. This has surprised many other people here, but it turns out it had the opposite effect, which led the opposition to redouble their efforts to join.
The bese Belarusian president so far has shown no objective of resigning, even insisting that there will be no new elections “as long as I am not killed,” but it turns out that it is declining throughout the day.
Last Friday, protesters built up the offices of the Central Electoral Commission outdoors and shouted “Conversation!” hoping someone would come and talk about their requests for vote counting in the August 9th election.
By Monday, the songs were gone; the slogans “Go away!” and “Court!” now dominate, while protesters call for Lukashenko’s resignation.
Lukashenko tried to save the day on Monday by going to a striking factory staff organization in what was intended to be a conscientiously staged appearance to show that he can count on the help of his worker base. Instead, outraged personnel through scenes of police violence interrupted the veteran Belarusian leader with the same choruses heard in the streets.
In recent weeks, Belarus has been divided between two parallel worlds. One is represented through Lukashenko, the Soviet-style red and green flag and state television broadcasting photographs of wheat fields, even when protesters were hit in the streets.
The other is represented through the red and white flag of Belarus’s pre-Soviet past, symptoms of victory and increasingly appearing the black purple bruises on the back and legs of young detainees across the country.
Now the photographs have begun to merge, while cracks appear in Belarusian institutions.
Workers from dozens of factories, the backbone of the country, went on strike to call new elections and prisoners.
Images of widespread discontent have infiltrated state media reports. A dozen prominent state media journalists have resigned in recent weeks in Belarus, and at least 300 members of the state broadcaster signed a petition calling for the annulment of the election results.
Some of those who resigned refused to publicly disclose their motives, but others cited media censorship as a reason.
“I would prevent because many of my friends found themselves locked up in prisons and tortured,” said Ekaterina Vodonosova, former host of a cultural exhibition at BT. “And it’s not just other people I’ve read to, they’re other people I know personally.
On Monday, Belarus’s health minister, Vladimir Karanik, was interrupted in the crowd after declaring that two other people had died in last week’s protests; about 160 more people remain in the hospital.
The frustration congested with the country’s poor reaction to coronaviruses may also have played a role, something characteristic of the solidarity shown through the protesters with public efforts in combating the pandemic.
In the spring, Belarusians handed masks to doctors, collected cash for enthusiasts and tried to spread the virus, Lukashenko called it a “mass psychosis,” before saying that he himself had contracted it.
They now gather lists of missing people, bring food and water to detention centres, meet and provide monetary assistance to law enforcement officials who replace the sides.
“[Lukashenko] didn’t care … then we learned that he didn’t care if we were alive or dying,” said Elizaveta, a protester at the rally in Minsk on Sunday, who did not want to divulge his surname. “We had to do something, we had to coordinate, collect things and tell others, and that’s what we’re doing right now.”
The protests continue every day, but it is not known what they will bring to Belarus.
Some are concerned that Lukashenko will drag Russian President Vladimir Putin into the unrest after a series of phone calls in which the two leaders discussed a mutual defense treaty that requires its members to provide assistance in the event of an external threat.
Lukashenko even warned that unrest in Belarus can cause unrest in Russia, his main business spouse and his closest ally.
So far, Russia has shown no signs that it needs to repeat the invasion of Crimea in 2014. In a call with Merkel on Tuesday, Putin insisted that any outdoor interference in Belarusian internal affairs was unacceptable and risked “further escalation of the crisis.”
But many in Belarus say that Putin is possibly the only user who can make or defeat Lukashenko.
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