March of 100,000 marks week 7 of Belarus protests

Tens of hundreds of Belarusians calling for the authoritarian president to renounce marched in the course of the capital Sunday as the rustic’s wave of protests entered its 7th week.

Masses of squaddies blocked off the middle of Minsk, deploying water cannons and armored staff carriers and erecting barbed cord boundaries. Protests additionally happened in different different towns, together with Brest and Grodno.

The gang in Minsk integrated about 100,000 other people, mentioned Ales Bialiatski, head of the Viasna human rights group. He mentioned dozens of demonstrators have been arrested in Minsk and Grodno.

Protests started Aug. nine after an election that authentic effects say gave President Alexander Lukashenko a 6th time period in place of business; warring parties and a few ballot staff say the consequences have been manipulated.

Lukashenko, who has repressed opposition and unbiased information media all over 26 years in energy, has rejected ideas of debate with the protesters. Many participants of the Coordination Council that was once shaped through the opposition to push for a transition of energy were arrested or have fled the rustic.

The Minsk demonstrators carried the red-and-white flags that have been unbiased Belarus” nationwide usual sooner than being changed in 1995, early in Lukashenko”s tenure. Some bore placards depicting Lukashenko as a mustachioed cockroach.

Even though protests have taken position day by day because the election, the Sunday gatherings in Minsk were through a long way the biggest, attracting crowds of as many as 200,000 other people.

“Each Sunday, you’re appearing yourselves and the arena that the Belarusian individuals are the facility,” Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was once Lukashenko”s primary election opponent, mentioned in a video message from Lithuania, the place she is in exile.

The marchers additionally carried portraits of Maria Kolsenikova, a most sensible opposition determine who has been jailed for 2 weeks and is going through fees of undermining state safety that might deliver a five-year jail time period. Kolesnikova has mentioned safety forces drove her to the border with Ukraine to check out to make her depart the rustic, however that she tore up her passport so she couldn”t pass the border.

In a remark relayed through her attorney on Sunday, Kolsenikova prompt protesters to proceed.

“Freedom is value combating for. Don’t be afraid to be unfastened,” she mentioned. “I don’t be apologetic about anything else and would do the similar once more.” Additionally Sunday, Inner Ministry spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova mentioned an investigation has been opened into the discharge through hackers of the non-public knowledge of greater than 1,000 staff of the ministry, which runs the police forces.

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