MINSK, Belarus (AP) – The leading opposition candidate in Belarus’s presidential election left for Lithuania on Tuesday, but anti-government demonstrators went for the third night in a row to protest the election results, despite a major police crackdown that prompted a warning. European Union sanctions.
Looking haggard and distressed, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, 37, a former English instructor who entered the race after her husband’s imprisonment in Belarus, apologized to her supporters in a video and said it was her own choice to leave the country.
“It’s a very difficult resolution to take,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “I know that many of you will perceive me, many others will condemn me, and some will even hate me. But God forbid they face the selection I faced.
In another video released later on Tuesday, he suggested to his followers that they respect the law and avoid clashes with the police.
The statements marked a sudden U-turn for Tsikhanouskaya hours after he rejected the official effects of Sunday’s election, which showed that President Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term with 80% weight and 10%.
Her crusade assistants said she had taken the unforeseen steps under pressure. Tsikhanouskaya’s husband, an opposition blogger who hoped to run for president, has been imprisoned since his arrest in May.
“It is very difficult to withstand tension when her circle of relatives and everyone around her has been taken hostage,” said Maria Kolesnikova, one of Tsikhanovskaya’s main associates.
The former candidate’s crusade issued a call to the government to interact in the discussion with the protesters about a “peaceful transition of power.”
The authoritarian Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet country of 9.5 million people with an iron hand since 1994, has mocked the opposition as a “sheep” rigged through foreign masters and has promised to continue to take a business stance opposed to protests in despite Western rebukes on elections.
Thousands of opposition supporters protesting the effects of the elections encountered competitive policemen in the capital, Minsk, and in several other Belarusian cities.
On Monday, a protester was killed amid clashes in Minsk and dozens of wounded when police used tear gas, flash grenades and rubber bullets to disperse them. The Interior Ministry said the victim dropped an explosive device, however, it exploded in his hand and killed him.
Belarusian fitness officials said that more than 200 people had been hospitalized with injuries as a result of the protests and that some had undergone surgery.
The strong police cords blocking Minsk’s squares and central avenues deterred protesters who took to the streets shouting “Honte!” and “Long live Belarus!”
Police moved temporarily on Tuesday to separate and disperse scattered teams of protesters in the capital, but a new resistance portfolio continued to proliferate in central Minsk. Police arrested dozens of them, adding some who had taken flowers to the place where the protester had died the night before.
Some protesters knelt in front of rows of policemen in black uniforms, urging them to respect the right of others to demonstrate peacefully.
Motorists honked their horns and some used their cars to block the passage of police cars. The Interior Ministry warned that these cars would be confiscated and that their owners could be prosecuted.
The ministry said Tuesday that more than 2,000 more people were arrested across the country for participating in unauthorized protests Monday night and evening. He added that 21 police officers were injured in clashes with protesters and five of them were hospitalized.
The day before, the ministry reported more than 3,000 arrests and said 89 others had been injured, adding up to 39 law enforcement officers.
Several hounds were injured and some were arrested by police. On Tuesday, police confiscated memorabilia cards from a photographer’s organization, adding an AP photographer, while taking photographs of the crackdown.
Dutch newspaper NRC said Tuesday that its Eastern European correspondent, Emilie van Outeren, was hit in the leg with an unknown shell when police opened fire on protesters on Sunday.
While the Internet has been dormant across the country for the third day in a row, which appears to be an attempt by the government to make it difficult for protesters to coordinate their efforts, thousands of Belarusians have struggled to figure out what happened to their missing. Relatives.
“We’re still waiting for any signals or information,” said Lena Radomanova, looking for a missing friend.
The crackdown has provoked complaints from the European Union and the United States.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Tuesday that the 27-nation bloc is planning to take action contrary to those involved in police repression or against officials who may have interfered in the vote. Borrell said the election “was neither loose nor fair” and asked Minsk to start a discussion with society to prevent further violence.
In 2016, the EU lifted the top of the sanctions it imposed on Belarus in 2004 after Lukashenko, nicknamed “Europe’s last dictator in the West,” freed political prisoners and allowed protests.
The economic damage caused by coronavirus and Lukashenko’s boastful reaction to the pandemic, which he categorically described as “psychosis,” fueled widespread anger, helping to thicken the opposition ranks and prompting the Belarusian leader to launch a new offensive against dissent.
Tsikhanouskaya, who had no past political experience, entered the race after her husband’s arrest. It has managed to unite fractured opposition teams and attract tens of thousands of others to its electoral rallies, the largest opposition demonstrations in Belarus since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In the video statement, Tsikhanouskaya thanked her supporters for supporting her candidacy, but added that “the other Belarusian people made their decision.”
“Belarusians, I urge you to show common sense and respect for the law,” she said excitedly, reading a text without getting up from the newspaper. “I don’t need blood and violence. I ask you not to confront the police and not to go to the squares to endanger your life. Take care of yourselves and those you have enjoyed.
Hours earlier, Tsikhanouskaya had questioned the effects of the vote and had submitted a formal request for a recount to the Central Electoral Commission. He stayed at the commission headquarters for hours and clashed with senior law enforcement officers, according to his crusade assistants. It was not noticed until he gave the impression in Lithuania on Tuesday, where in the past he had sent his children after receiving threats at the beginning of the crusade.
An assistant, Olga Kovalkova, said the government emphasized the change of meaning to understand Tsikhanouskaya to read a list and then expelled her from the country.
“We don’t know what kind of tension she put on and how they tried to break it,” Kovalkova said. “She could not have said it herself. He’s reading a text ready.
He said Tsikhanouskaya had left the country with his crusade manager, Maria Moroz, who had been arrested over the weekend. Several crusade assistants remained in detention.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said videos posted through Tsikhanouskaya were recorded in Belarus rather than Vilnius.
“I think the crusade had tempered me and made me so strong that I could do anything,” Tsikhanouskaya said in the first of his two videos, his emaciated face and his broken voice. “But it turns out I was still the same weak woman as before.
News of Tsikhanouskaya’s departure from the country deterred the protesters.
“The departure of Tikhanouskaya will replace anything and the protests will continue,” said Sergei Yurkevich, a 25-year-old protester. “They spit in our faces and need us to be silent, but we will remain silent.”
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Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania, Lorne Cook in Brussels and Mike Corder in The Hague contributed to the report.