Protest following election results spreads across the country • US: Elections were unfair and not free, calls on authorities to refrain from using violence
A stun grenade explodes among protesters in Minsk // Photo: Reuters
Protests in Belarus are escalating and with it police violence. At around 20:00 yesterday (Monday) it was reported that clashes had begun in Minsk between protesters and police forces, in protest of the election results announced by the authorities and which the opposition refuses to accept. According to the election results, the current president, Alexander Lukashenko, won the election with close to eighty percent of the vote.
The protest received a strong backlash from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who said the election was neither free nor fair, according to a Tass agency report. Pompeo added that "the US calls on the Belarusian authorities to respect the rights of citizens by participating in peaceful gatherings and to refrain from using force against them."
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So far, one death has been reported among protesters in Minsk as a result of an explosion of a stun grenade or other explosive device. 50 protesters were injured to varying degrees. At the same time, the Russian-language BBC reported that attempts had been made to block the Twitter network in Belarus, due to numerous tweets against the election results.
Due to the riots, opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya could not leave the Central Election Commission building for long hours, where she filed a complaint. Fears arose that she had been arrested, which was denied by authorities who even claimed to have thwarted her assassination attempt.
Around 21:00 the demonstrations began in the cities of Lida, Novopolotsk, Soligorsk, Brest and Grodno and also reported violent clashes, which soon spread throughout the country. According to official reports from Minsk, 21 criminal cases have been opened. Russia's news agencies say police are firing rubber bullets at protesters and are using a variety of means to disperse protesters, including tear gas and stun grenades.
In many cases, the protesters encounter extremely severe police violence. As a means of self-defense, the demonstrators set up roadblocks. The independent Russian website TV RAIN reported on a demonstration held in Moscow in front of the Belarusian embassy building demanding the release of Russian journalists arrested in Belarus and against the election results. At the same time, workers at one of Belarus' main metal plants declared a strike in solidarity with protesters and election irregularities.
