MINSK, Belarus – Tens of thousands of people on Friday flooded the center of the Belarusian capital, Minsk, in a protest over a brutal police crackdown this week against nonviolent demonstrators following a disputed election, and the government tried to quell growing public anger by releasing at least 2,000 incarcerated after past protests.
The factory staff marched through town shouting, “Go away!” in a call for the resignation of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko after 26 years of iron rule that lasted in an election on Sunday that protesters denounced as rigged.
Friday’s crowds grew to more than 20,000 people, filling the central Independence Square.
A dozen infantrymen guarding the government’s nearby headquarters lowered their shields in what the protesters saw as a sign of solidarity, and the women rushed to kiss and kiss the guards.
As protesters piled up in the square, Lukashenko ruled them out as manipulated puppets from abroad. In an assembly with senior law enforcement officials, he defended the crackdown as a justified reaction to violence opposed to the police through some of the protesters. The Interior Ministry said 121 police were injured.
However, he told officials to exceed maximum force.
“If a user falls and is still in bed, don’t hit him!” Lukashenko said.
The Belarusian leader warned others who oppose participating in the protests, saying the country faces a foreign “aggression.”
“Don’t pass out in the street. You have to perceive that you and your young people are being used as cannon fodder,” Lukashenko said, claiming that others from Poland, the Netherlands, Ukraine and some members of the Russian opposition were fomenting the riots.
“Do you want him to fall and wait for Minsk to be overwhelmed?” He said. “We will no longer be able to stabilize the situation after that. We want to take a break, make a combination and calm down. And let’s repair order and treat those who have come here.
The call for foreign unrest was greeted with disdain through the protesters.
“No one believes those horror stories about outside forces. We are tired of enemies and constant plots,” said Galina Erema, 42. He’s usurped the force and gone for 26 years. That’s the explanation for why the protests. »
A messaging app that has been key to the protesters’ communication announced plans for Sunday marches in Minsk and “in other cities and villages in Belarus,” an indication that the determination remains strong.
Previously, police had intervened as protesters marched through the city, reflecting Lukashenko’s obvious attempt to appease the opposition by fleeing violent police crackdowns across the country this week.
The release through the Ministry of the Interior of some 2,000 of the nearly 7,000 detainees was identified as another measure to quench popular outrage. He said they’d free themselves more.
Many of the freed spoke of brutal beatings and other abuse by the police, and some had bruises on their bodies. Some cried as they kissed the parents they were waiting for.
“The government is obviously looking to calm the stage and ease tensions, fearing that the furious commercial will take to the streets of all of Belarus,” said Valiantsin Stefanovich of the Viasna Rights Center.
Protesters have taken to the streets since Sunday’s election, where Lukashenko was reported to have won 80% of the vote to win a sixth term.
His main rival, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled to neighboring Lithuania on Tuesday, released a new video in which he defied the effects of the vote and demanded that the government start an argument with the protesters.
The fierce repression has left many injured since Sunday when police largely dispersed non-violent protests with crippling grenades, tear gas, rubber bullets and violent beatings. At least one user killed.
The brutal crackdown on protests has generated strong grievances in the West. The European Union’s foreign ministers said they had rejected the effects of the elections and commissioned officials to draw up a list of others in Belarus who could face sanctions for their role in the crackdown.
Previously, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the EU was seeking to “significantly increase pressure on Belarus.”
Thousands of factories that once shaped the core of Lukashenko’s base joined the protests, denouncing police crackdown and not easy a new election, raising the prospect of a national unemployment.
“Our total workshop voted against Lukashenko and suddenly we learned that he had won overwhelmingly,” said Dmitry Glukhovsky, 42, a 42-year-old outdoor meeting employee at the Minsk car factory, or MAZ. “Not only have we been deceived, but we have also been beaten, and no one will settle for that.
He said his meeting workshop went on strike on Friday to call for a new election. More than 1,000 were noticed in the factory’s backyard shouting “Down!” asking for Lukashenko’s resignation.
At the Minsk tractor factory, or MTZ, about 1,000 employees also gathered to ask for Lukashenko’s resignation and marched to the government headquarters. When they reached the center of the capital, the crowd increased and others cheered and motorists honked their horns in support.
“We need a new election, a new government and a new life,” said engineer Mikhail Marchuk, 44, as he walked with others from the factory to central Minsk. “We’ll protest until we win.”
Workers also piled up in many giant factories to launch an unprecedented challenge on Lukashenko, which has been in force since 1994 and has earned the nickname “Europe’s last dictator” for his relentless crackdown on dissent.
Early in the day, Lukashenko warned that the measures would exacerbate the damage inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic and could lead To Belarus losing its position in global markets.
After the crackdown, police subsidized Thursday and Friday as protests in Minsk and other cities increased. Women, most commonly dressed in white and with flowers and portraits of inmates, formed human chains on Thursday as motorists honked their horns in support. Dozens of army and police veterans posted videos throwing their uniforms in the trash.
Protests have spread even though they lack leaders. Tsikhanouskaya suggested to her supporters to avoid protests in an earlier video which, according to her affiliates, had been recorded under pressure from law enforcement while she was still in Minsk. The 37-year-old former instructuring had joined the race to catch up on her husband, an opposition blogger who has been incarcerated since May.
In the video released Friday, Tsikhanouskaya again contested the election results, claiming that copies of the protocols of the electoral districts where the vote was counted show it between 60% and 70%. She suggested that the government end the violence and interact in the discussion with the protesters.
“Belarusians will never need to do it under existing government,” he said. “The government has turned nonviolent protests into a bloodbath.”
He also announced the creation of a coordinating council to help ensure a “peaceful transition of power.”
While Lukashenko faces new Western sanctions, he moved temporarily to repair ties with his main sponsor and ally, Russia, after Belarus arrested 32 personal Russian army contractors for making plans for unrest before the election.
Moscow denied the accusations, saying the men were heading to another country and alleged that his arrest was a provocation through the Ukrainian spy company that had provided misleading data about his project to the Minsk authorities.
Russia’s attorney general said Friday that contractors had returned home. Another Russian arrested in Belarus, political representative Vitaly Shklyarov, also a Belarusian citizen, was detained for organizing riots, according to his lawyer.
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Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov and Jim Heintz in Moscow, Lorne Cook in Brussels and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed.
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