Riot police severely arrested more than 400 protesters in Belarus on Sunday when tens of thousands of people took to the streets on the eve of close talks between strongman Alexander Lukashenko and his main ally, Vladimir Putin of Russia.
It is estimated that more than 100,000 more people have marched in Minsk in the last 4 weekends to call for Lukashenko’s resignation after the disputed presidential election on 9 August, which he claimed to have won by an overwhelming majority.
AFP informants said a similar number took part in the most recent demonstration, with massive crowds flooding the streets despite intensified police repression.
Thousands of protesters arrested Photo: TUT. BY / –
Masked police officers, uniformed and dressed as civilians, violently arrested others who gathered for the “Walk of Heroes” demonstration, pushing or beating them, showed a video posted in Belarusian Tut. by.
Police also used a shotgun, firing a “warning shot” into the air in a fight, the Interior Ministry said.
Mobile Internet access was limited and central metro stations closed, and the government moved police vans, army cars and barbed cables to the center prior to the demonstration.
Alexander Lukashenko (left) Possibly no longer face Russian Vladimir Putin opposed to West Photo: Sputnik / Mikhail KLIMENTYEV
“More than 400 more people were arrested in other parts of the capital,” the Home Office said in a statement, adding that detainees carried “offensive” flags and posters.
Thousands of protesters who made plans to march towards Lukashenko’s Independence Palace and a moment at the high-end Drozdy complex were blocked by police, and it was noted that some officials were dragging others onto the runway.
Thousands more protesters took to the streets of the cities, adding Gomel, Grodno and Brest, where police used water cannons in opposition to the protesters.
Chronology of the post-electoral riots in Belarus Photo: AFP / Gal ROMA
Belarusians have spoken out for a month against Lukashenko’s disputed re-election, and the motion of protest does not seem like any sign of disappearance.
“I went out for freedom and I will protest until we win it by nonviolent means,” 60-year-old walker Oleg Zimin told AFP.
He said he didn’t vote for Lukashenko last month. ” He lied to us,” he says.
Belarusian police arrest protesters in the center of the capital, Minsk, ahead of a mass demonstration on the eve of talks between President Alexander Lukashenko and his main ally, Vladimir Putin of Russia. Picture: TUT. By
The opposition has suggested to Lukashenko that he not “sell the country” before his first face-to-face meeting with Putin since the protests began in Russia on Monday.
“This country is not for sale,” said a sign during the march. “Putin, don’t catch (Belarus) or drown,” said another.
Thousands of opposition supporters were on the streets of Minsk for fifth consecutive Sunday Photo: TUT. BY / –
Andrei Gorbachevsky, a 29-year-old doctor, accused Putin of treating Belarus as if it were a Russian province.
“It supports Lukashenko’s regime, plays a strange game and that’s why our other people no longer accept it as true,” he said.
Putin and Lukashenko are expected to meet at the Sochi hotel on the Black Sea, and the Kremlin said the talks will focus on plans for closer integration between neighboring countries, as well as key industry and energy projects.
Putin willing to unify Russia and Belarus, and Moscow accompanied his donations of military and economic aid with calls for closer integration.
Analysts say Putin may simply seek to exploit Lukashenko’s political vulnerability to extract concessions from him, but any agreement that compromises Belarusian sovereignty and independence is likely to infuriate Belarusian protesters more.
Sunday’s demonstration came when Lukashenko’s security forces intensified the arrests of senior opposition officials still in Belarus.
After a major demonstration last Sunday, Maria Kolesnikova, one of the 3 prominent opposition women, was imprisoned after resisting deportation and broke her passport.
More than six hundred more people were arrested last Sunday, while on Saturday, insurrection police violently arrested dozens of protesters at a smaller demonstration in Minsk.
Presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who according to the motion of protest won the vote but was forced into exile in neighbouring EU member Lithuania, paid the protesters three times before the march.
“Over the past month, we have become a heroic people,” Tikhanovskaya, a political stranger until the election, said in a video.
Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet state for 26 years, refused to resign and headed to Russia to remain in power.
His security forces arrested thousands of protesters, many of whom accused police of beatings and torture. Several more people died in repression.
The United States said Friday that it would impose new sanctions on Belarusian figures within a few days and warned Moscow to proceed with the strongman would only alienate Belarusians.