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By Andrei Makhovsky
MINSK (Reuters) – A best friend of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko issued a rare public apology on Thursday in an effort to quell street protests across the country that challenge the strongman’s 26-year government.
At least two protesters were killed and thousands arrested this week in an offensive following Lukashenko’s disputed re-election that led the West to new sanctions opposed to Minsk.
The emollient tone used in statements across two high states underlined the vulnerability of Lukashenko’s control in a country perceived across neighboring Russia as a strategic buffer opposed to NATO and the European Union.
Authorities also began releasing the protesters, some of whom had bruises and said they were crammed into cells. They complained of mistreats, adding beatings.
“I take the duty and apologize for other people’s random injuries during the protests that had her on her neck,” said Interior Minister Yuri Karayev.
Tens of thousands of protesters joined Thursday through some state industries that are proud of Lukashenko’s Soviet-style business model, adding the Minsk Automobile Factory (MAZ), which manufactures trucks and buses.
The images were shown singing “choices” and “forward.” Local media also reported protests against the state manufacturer of transport and land movement devices BelAZ in the city northeast of Minsk and at the Grodno Azot chemical plant.
The protesters formed human chains and marched through the capital, supported by at least 10 television presenters and strictly controlled state media announcers who resigned in solidarity.
Protesters accuse Lukashenko of manipulating last Sunday’s presidential election to win a sixth term. The president, alleging a foreign-backed plot to destabilize the country, dismissed the protesters as criminals and the unemployed.
But the presidential ally, the head of a national council of state, Natalya Kochanova, said Thursday that Lukashenko had ordered an urgent review of the arrests.
“We’re not fighting, we don’t want war,” he said. “Tonight, more than a thousand other people have been released under the legal responsibility of not taking part in unauthorized events.”
Russia alleges meddling
In Minsk, EU ambassadors layed flowers at the site of a protester’s death as the crowd clapped and sang.
“We are here to mourn the loss of life and also to show our solidarity with the victims of the violence and abuse that have occurred in many Belarusian cities in recent days,” EU envoy Dirk Schuebel told the press.
Lukashenko sought more with the West amid tense ties with Russia’s classic ally.
The EU partially lifted sanctions imposed on Lukashenko’s human rights record in 2016, but it is possible to introduce new measures from this month. Germany called on the EU to put pressure on Lukashenko.
Russia, which has led Lukashenko to settle for closer political and economic ties, expressed its fear at what it described as attempts through external forces to destabilize Belarus.
A former director of the Soviet collective farm, Lukashenko, 65, is angry about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which he has described as “psychosis,” a lazy economy and human rights.
On Thursday morning, other outdoors at the Okrestina detention center in Minsk, some crying, waited in hopes of getting news from friends and family inside. Police and infantrymen armed with firearms drove them away when they got too close.
Sergei, one of the detainees released, said there were 28 other people on a mobile phone involving five. The prisoners took turns falling asleep, he said, and were given a singles bread bar in percentage for two days.
“They didn’t hit me on my cell phone, they pulled me off my cell phone and beat me there,” said Sergei, who refused to give his last name.
Reuters can independently find out his story. A spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry declined to comment.
(Report through Andrei Makhovsky; Additional report through Anton Zverev and Andrey Ostroukh in Moscow and Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels; written through Matthias Williams; Edited through Alex Richardson, Giles Elgood and Grant McCool)