Protesters continue to pressurize the Belarusian dictator and pay the price

Moscow – The protests against the government continued for the 128th day on Monday in the capital of Belarus. Numerous protesters took to the streets of Minsk calling on President Alexander Lukashenko to resign, despite hundreds of people being detained for doing the same just hours earlier, and tens of thousands in recent months.

Sunday’s massive protests have become a staple of the beleaguered pro-democracy movement in Belarus. Each week, despite frigid temperatures, they continue to gather to denounce the country’s authoritarian leader, who claimed victory in a disputed presidential election in August and assumed his sixth term. Hundreds of others are arrested every week for doing this.

Many people, both in Belarus and around the world, have labeled the summer elections as faked and believe it was Lukashenko’s main rival, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, which really won the majority of the votes.

Thousands are said to have come out again last Sunday, but in an effort to hamper security forces’ efforts to silence them, they tried a new tactic. Instead of one big gathering in the center of Minsk, smaller protests were spread across dozens of locations in the capital.

TOPSHOT-BELARUS-DEMO POLITICS
Opposition supporters with the former white and red flags of Belarus march through the streets during a demonstration against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, December 13, 2020.

STRINGER / AFP / Getty


They mainly marched in residential areas, carried the red and white flags that were a symbol of the opposition, and chanted anti-Lukashenko slogans and “Long live Belarus.”

Police officials said more than 300 people were detained during Sunday’s protests, and rights activists said at least two Belarusian journalists were among them.

More than 30,000 people have been detained for the first time since the protests in August, according to the Viasna Human Rights Center in Minsk, and thousands of them have been brutally beaten in custody. At least four people are reported to have died.


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Small-scale demonstrations continued Monday afternoon, including a “retirees march” in central Minsk. Belarusian online news outlet Tut.by quoted human rights activists as saying that about 70 or 80 of those protesters were rounded up by security forces and put on buses. It was not clear whether they had been formally placed under arrest.

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Tikhanovskaya was meanwhile in Berlin to meet with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Tikhanovskaya, along with several other opposition members, fled her country to Lithuania shortly after the election. She calls on Western countries to step up pressure on Lukashenko’s regime and help end his 26-year rule.

In an interview with the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, Tichanovskaya said she expected Lukashenko to be out of power by spring, but she didn’t seem to have the illusion that it would be easy.

“We are still on the first step – pressure from within and pressure from outside. It would be naive to believe that Lukashenko is just leaving,” she said.


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On Wednesday she will receive the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Human Rights from the European Parliament.

Following the controversial elections and the violent crackdown by the security forces against the protesters, the European Union imposed travel bans and frozen the assets of nearly 50 Belarusian officials.

Lukashenko, backed by Russian leader Vladimir Putin, announced weeks ago that he intended to draft a new constitution, but has not given any indication that he might resign. He claims the protests were orchestrated by foreign powers.

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