September 08, 2020
By RFE/RL's Belarus Service
Coordination Council presidium member Maryya Kalesnikava (file photo)
MINSK -- Embattled Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenko has reportedly acknowledged on Russian television that he "maybe overstayed a bit" as anger mounts over the disappearance and subsequent detention of a leading opposition organizer on September 8.
Belarusian border officials said they detained Maryya Kalesnikava at the border with Ukraine after a full day of Belarusian and international calls mount for answers from Minsk on her suspected abduction and other disappearances of influential Lukashenka critics.
The deputy interior minister of neighboring Ukraine called the circumstances of Maryya Kalesnikava's detention an attempt at a "forcible expulsion" with the aim of "compromising the Belarusian opposition," after weeks of massive anti-government demonstrations.
In the evening of September 8, dozens of people were detained by security forces during a spontaneous march in Minsk.
Several hundred people gathered in the city center in the early evening in a "march to support the repressed." RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported that police were detaining both male and female marchers, sometimes violently.
Marchers carried banners supporting Kalesnikava, calling her "our hero."
Kalesnikava reportedly arrived at the Alyaksandrauka border checkpoint at around 5 a.m. on September 8 in a car with two other opposition organizers who went missing the previous day, council press secretary Anton Randyonkau and executive secretary Ivan Krautsou.
Speaking to journalists in Kyiv, Randyonkau said Kalesnikava tore up her passport and escaped from the car in which the three were being expelled. She returned to the Belarusian side of the border on foot and was taken into custody, he said.
All three are key figures on the Coordination Council that has pressed for a peaceful transition of power since election officials declared Lukashenka the runaway winner of an August 9 vote they say was fraudulent, and colleagues raised alarm bells when they went missing on September 7.
Meanwhile, the embattled Lukashenka -- who has led the country for 26 years -- was quoted by Russian media as vowing once again that he won't step down.
But he appeared to acknowledge that he might have been in power too long. "Yes, maybe I overstayed a bit," Lukashenka was quoted as saying.
MINSK -- Embattled Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenko has reportedly acknowledged on Russian television that he "maybe overstayed a bit" as anger mounts over the disappearance and subsequent detention of a leading opposition organizer on September 8.
Belarusian border officials said they detained Maryya Kalesnikava at the border with Ukraine after a full day of Belarusian and international calls mount for answers from Minsk on her suspected abduction and other disappearances of influential Lukashenka critics.
The deputy interior minister of neighboring Ukraine called the circumstances of Maryya Kalesnikava's detention an attempt at a "forcible expulsion" with the aim of "compromising the Belarusian opposition," after weeks of massive anti-government demonstrations.
In the evening of September 8, dozens of people were detained by security forces during a spontaneous march in Minsk.
Several hundred people gathered in the city center in the early evening in a "march to support the repressed." RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported that police were detaining both male and female marchers, sometimes violently.
Marchers carried banners supporting Kalesnikava, calling her "our hero."
Kalesnikava reportedly arrived at the Alyaksandrauka border checkpoint at around 5 a.m. on September 8 in a car with two other opposition organizers who went missing the previous day, council press secretary Anton Randyonkau and executive secretary Ivan Krautsou.
Speaking to journalists in Kyiv, Randyonkau said Kalesnikava tore up her passport and escaped from the car in which the three were being expelled. She returned to the Belarusian side of the border on foot and was taken into custody, he said.
All three are key figures on the Coordination Council that has pressed for a peaceful transition of power since election officials declared Lukashenka the runaway winner of an August 9 vote they say was fraudulent, and colleagues raised alarm bells when they went missing on September 7.
Meanwhile, the embattled Lukashenka -- who has led the country for 26 years -- was quoted by Russian media as vowing once again that he won't step down.
But he appeared to acknowledge that he might have been in power too long. "Yes, maybe I overstayed a bit," Lukashenka was quoted as saying.
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka speaks to Russian journalists in Minsk, on September 8.
He reportedly repeated his suggestion that a new election might be held after constitutional reforms are effected -- an offer that opposition leaders suggest is a delaying tactic to quell the mass demonstrations.
Lukashenka also said during the interview that he and "the Russian establishment" had concluded that "if Belarus collapses today, Russia will be next." He said he calls Russian President Vladimir Putin his "older brother" and blamed the United States and the Telegram messaging service for Belarus's unrest.
"How are you [Russians] going to counteract the Telegram channels?" he said. "Do you have the capability of blocking these Telegram channels? No one does, even those who came up with this whole spider web -- the Americans. You see what is happening there. And Telegram channels are playing the leading role there."
Belarusian State Border Committee representative Anton Bychkouski initially said that Kalesnikava, Randyonkau, and Krautsou had all left the country early on September 8.
Contact Lost
But Belarusian state television later quoted Bychkouski as saying that Kalesnikava, a Coordination Council presidium member, was detained trying to cross the border while the other two had entered Ukraine.
Ukraine's State Border Service later confirmed that Kalesnikava did not enter the country but that Randyonkau and Krautsou had arrived and were being processed.
Ukrainian Deputy Interior Minister Anton Herashchenko appeared to confirm that version of events in a Facebook post describing the Belarusians' arrival at the checkpoint as "a forcible expulsion from a native country with the aim of compromising the Belarusian opposition."
Herashchenko said Kalesnikava "was unable to be removed from Belarus because this brave woman took action to prevent her movement across the border."
He accused Lukashenka's regime of trying "to present everything as if opposition leaders [were] throwing hundreds of thousands of protesters against Lukashenka's regime and fleeing to cozy Ukraine."
He added of the Belarusian oppositionists' appearance at the border: "It wasn't a voluntary trip!"
Lukashenka's exiled opposition challenger in last month's election, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, issued a call for Kalesnikava's immediate release.
"Maryya Kalesnikava must be released immediately, as well as all previously apprehended members of the Coordination Council and political prisoners. The Coordination Council's goal is to be a negotiating platform," Tsikhanouskaya said, according to her press service.
A member of the council's leadership, Paval Latushka, said that "the government didn't achieve its goal."
"The Coordination Council has not lost its morale, it continues to work," he added.
He reportedly repeated his suggestion that a new election might be held after constitutional reforms are effected -- an offer that opposition leaders suggest is a delaying tactic to quell the mass demonstrations.
Lukashenka also said during the interview that he and "the Russian establishment" had concluded that "if Belarus collapses today, Russia will be next." He said he calls Russian President Vladimir Putin his "older brother" and blamed the United States and the Telegram messaging service for Belarus's unrest.
"How are you [Russians] going to counteract the Telegram channels?" he said. "Do you have the capability of blocking these Telegram channels? No one does, even those who came up with this whole spider web -- the Americans. You see what is happening there. And Telegram channels are playing the leading role there."
Belarusian State Border Committee representative Anton Bychkouski initially said that Kalesnikava, Randyonkau, and Krautsou had all left the country early on September 8.
Contact Lost
But Belarusian state television later quoted Bychkouski as saying that Kalesnikava, a Coordination Council presidium member, was detained trying to cross the border while the other two had entered Ukraine.
Ukraine's State Border Service later confirmed that Kalesnikava did not enter the country but that Randyonkau and Krautsou had arrived and were being processed.
Ukrainian Deputy Interior Minister Anton Herashchenko appeared to confirm that version of events in a Facebook post describing the Belarusians' arrival at the checkpoint as "a forcible expulsion from a native country with the aim of compromising the Belarusian opposition."
Herashchenko said Kalesnikava "was unable to be removed from Belarus because this brave woman took action to prevent her movement across the border."
He accused Lukashenka's regime of trying "to present everything as if opposition leaders [were] throwing hundreds of thousands of protesters against Lukashenka's regime and fleeing to cozy Ukraine."
He added of the Belarusian oppositionists' appearance at the border: "It wasn't a voluntary trip!"
Lukashenka's exiled opposition challenger in last month's election, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, issued a call for Kalesnikava's immediate release.
"Maryya Kalesnikava must be released immediately, as well as all previously apprehended members of the Coordination Council and political prisoners. The Coordination Council's goal is to be a negotiating platform," Tsikhanouskaya said, according to her press service.
A member of the council's leadership, Paval Latushka, said that "the government didn't achieve its goal."
"The Coordination Council has not lost its morale, it continues to work," he added.
An eyewitness reported seeing Kalesnikava swept up by unidentified men from the street and into a minivan in downtown Minsk on September 7. Acquaintances said contact was lost soon afterward with Randyonkau and Krautsou.
Their disappearances elicited accusations by the European Union that the embattled Belarusian regime was using kidnapping and intimidation to quash more than four weeks of unprecedented protests.
Thousands of people have been arrested, journalists have been harassed and expelled, and clips have emerged of Lukashenka's security services brutally abusing detainees.
An unnamed senior official in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States was "extremely concerned by continued human rights violations" in Belarus. The official said the forced expulsion of opposition figures is one of the methods Minsk "is using in its attempts to deny freedom of speech."
Germany, which currently holds the rotating EU Presidency, has demanded information on those who went missing and the release of political prisoners.
"We demand clarity on the whereabouts and the release of all political prisoners in Belarus," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the Bild daily in statements published on September 8.
"The continued arrests and repression, including and in particular against members of the Coordination Council, are unacceptable," Maas added.
The French Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying "France strongly condemns the arbitrary arrests and practice of forcing into exile several members of the Coordination Council, as well as numerous demonstrators in recent days."
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also condemned the "detentions and abductions" of opposition figures.
SEE ALSO:
Tsikhanouskaya Pleads For 'Help Now' For Belarus
Members of the Coordination Council and its decision-making presidium have been summoned by police and in some cases sentenced to jail.
An eyewitness reported seeing Kalesnikava swept up by unidentified men from the street and into a minivan in downtown Minsk on September 7.
Acquaintances said contact was lost soon afterward with Randyonkau and Krautsou.
Tsikhanouskaya Abroad
The opposition's leading hope in last month's election was political novice Tsikhanouskaya, who fled into exile in Lithuania days after the vote.
Tsikhanouskaya appeared before a virtual meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)'s Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy on September 8 during an exchange of views on the situation in Belarus.
She is also scheduled to visit Warsaw this week to hold meetings with top Polish officials.
The chairman of the Belarusian parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Andrey Savinykh, suggested to the same PACE meeting that Poland was behind the anti-Lukashanka protests.
"Belarusian authorities have information showing that the protests had been meticulously planned and were coordinated -- among other means -- through social networks from abroad, specifically via the Nexta Telegram channel, whose activities, according to the information provided by a number of media outlets, are run by the central group of psychological warfare of the Polish armed forces," Savinykh said.
WATCH: How Lukashenka Demeans And Insults His Opponents In Belarus
How Lukashenka Demeans And Insults His Opponents In Belarus
Lukashenka, who has served five terms already, has refused to hold talks with his opponents and dismissed calls to hold a new election.
The EU "expects the Belarusian authorities to ensure the immediate release of all detained on political grounds before and after the falsified August 9 presidential election," the bloc's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on September 7.
Belarusian authorities have acknowledged detaining some 633 protesters as tens of thousands marched in the capital and other cities on September 6 to pressure Lukashenka to leave.
With reporting by Current Time, AFP, TASS, AP, and Reuters
RFE/RL's Belarus Service
RFE/RL's Belarus Service is one of the leading providers of news and analysis to Belarusian audiences in their own language. It is a bulwark against pervasive Russian propaganda and defies the government’s virtual monopoly on domestic broadcast media.
No comments:
Post a Comment