In the aftermath of severely repressed anti-government demonstrations after the announcement of the presidential victory of the indestructible Alexander Lukashenko, new clashes broke out this Monday evening in Minsk with the police. According to Reuters, around 30 people were arrested.
Faced with calls to demonstrate Monday evening posted on social networks - despite limited access to the Internet since Sunday - the police cordoned off the center of the Belarusian capital, in particular around the Stela monument, epicenter of the violence of the day before. Metro stations were closed, and riot forces were present in large numbers.
#Belarus: police forces are already trying to break up smaller protests scattered throughout #Minsk pic.twitter.com/oTOWeahlXt
- Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) August 10, 2020Opposition presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has announced that she will not join the protests, while asking the president to hand over power. "She will not participate […] since the authorities could organize any provocation to stop her," said the candidate's spokesperson, Anna Krassoulina.
Tikhanovskaya "considers himself the winner"
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old political novice, who emerged in a matter of weeks as an unexpected rival to the head of state in charge of Belarus for 26 years, denounced Sunday's poll as falsified, after the victory was announced outgoing with 80.08% of the votes.
“Power has to think about how to cede power to us. I consider myself the winner, ”said Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, to whom the Election Commission awarded around 10% of the vote.
On the previous night, thousands of protesters came under fire with stun grenades and rubber bullets by police in Minsk, leaving dozens injured. The Interior Ministry told him about 3,000 arrests, about fifty civilians and forty police officers injured in 33 localities during the night from Sunday to Monday. He denied any death, contrary to information initially relayed by the human rights NGO Viasna speaking of a dead person.
For Lukashenko, the demonstrators are "sheep"
Abroad, the European Commission, Paris, Berlin and London have condemned the repression. Warsaw has called for an EU summit devoted to the subject. The White House said it was "greatly concerned" by the re-election of Lukashenko and to call on the government to "respect the right to assemble peacefully and to refrain from using force".
Conversely, the Russian and Chinese leaders, Vladimir Poutin and Xi Jinping, congratulated President Lukashenko. The latter had, however, accused Moscow of wanting to vassalize his country and seek to destabilize it. Russia has nevertheless denounced arrests of Russian journalists, and demanded the release of 33 Russians presented since the end of July by Minsk as mercenaries working with the opposition.
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The Belarusian president called the demonstrators "sheep" guided from London, Warsaw and Prague, insisting that he will not let the country be "torn to pieces". He also accused foreign forces of cutting off the internet in Belarus. The opposition believes that the authorities orchestrated the cuts to better organize the repression.
