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General strike in Minsk: A woman at the demonstration against the ruler Lukashenko
Photo: - / dpa
In Belarus, the demonstrations against the ruler Alexander Lukashenko continue unabated.
In the capital Minsk on Monday, senior citizens and students in particular demonstrated in a nationwide strike for Lukashenko's resignation - the ruler has now described the demonstrators as "terrorists".
At the beginning of a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Lukashenko said of the strikers: "These are the actions of organized criminal groups with signs of terrorism. We are gradually confronted with a terrorist threat."
The day before, a nationwide general strike had started, with which the opposition wants to increase the pressure on the authoritarian head of state.
Almost 600 arrests in just one day
According to the Interior Ministry, the police had taken 581 people into custody on the fringes of the strike, 486 of them in Minsk alone.
There were protests and arrests again on Tuesday.
Workers in numerous factories joined the strike on Monday to back up the demands of opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya.
Tichanowskaja had asked Lukashenko to resign by last Sunday, to end the violence against demonstrators and to release the political prisoners.
Lukashenko ignored the ultimatum.
"Support everyone who goes on strike for our future"
According to Tichanovskaya, employees of the Grodno Asot chemical plant, a Minsk car factory and workers from several tractor factories in the capital also stopped working.
These people are under "colossal pressure," said Tichanovskaya.
"Support everyone who goes on strike for our future," she wrote on the Telegram messenger service.
Meanwhile, political advisor Vitaly Shkliarov was released according to a report by the Belarusian news site tut.by.
He should have already left.
Schkliarov, who has both Belarusian and US citizenship, spent months in solitary confinement in Belarus.
He had been accused of helping organize mass unrest prior to the election.
Schkliarow was arrested at the airport when he was going to visit his seriously ill mother.
He has always denied all allegations.
The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had last spoken in a phone call with Lukashenko for Schkliarov's release.
Opposition members in Belarus have been organizing mass protests since the presidential election on August 9, which was overshadowed by massive allegations of fraud.
According to official information, Lukashenko won the election with more than 80 percent of the vote, with Tichanovskaya receiving only around ten percent.
The EU described the vote as neither free nor fair and a few weeks ago imposed new sanctions against politicians in the country.
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mrc / heb / dpa / AFP / Reuters
