UPDATED

100,000 march in Minsk to demand Belarus leader resigns

By YURAS KARMANAU today


Belarusian opposition supporters with old Belarusian national flags gather toward the Independence Palace, the residential of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2020. Sunday's demonstration marked the beginning of the fifth week of daily protests calling for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's resignation in the wake of allegedly manipulated elections. (AP Photo/TUT.by)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched Sunday to the outskirts of the presidential residence in the capital of Belarus, calling for the country’s authoritarian leader to resign as protests against President Alexander Lukashenko entered their fifth week.

Protests also took place in major cities throughout Belarus, said Interior Ministry spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova. Crowd sizes for those protests were not immediately reported, but Ales Bialiatski, head of the Viasna human rights organization, said the demonstration in Minsk attracted more than 100,000 people.

The protests, unprecedented in Belarus for their size and duration, began after the Aug. 9 presidential vote that election officials said gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office with 80% support. Protesters say the results were rigged, and some have explained to Associated Press journalists exactly how the fraud took place in their districts.

Lukashenko has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1994, regularly repressing dissent and press freedom.

Police violently cracked down on demonstrators in the first days of the protests, arresting some 7,000 people and beating hundreds. Although they have scaled back, detentions continue; Viasna reported scores of people were arrested in Minsk and in the city of Grodno on Sunday.

Police and army troops blocked off the center of Minsk on Sunday, but demonstrators marched to the outskirts of the Palace of Independence, the president’s working residence 3 kilometers (2 miles) outside the city center. The palace grounds were blocked off by phalanxes of shield-bearing riot police and water cannon.

“This sea of ​​people cannot be stopped by military equipment, water cannons, propaganda and arrests. Most Belarusians want a peaceful change of power and we will not get tired of demanding this,“said Maria Kolesnikova, a leader of the Coordination Council set up by the opposition to try to arrange a dialogue with the 66-year-old Lukashenko about a transition of power.

She spoke with The Associated Press by telephone.

Lukashenko has rejected any discussion with the council and some of its top members have been jailed. One of them, Olga Kovalova, was expelled from the country over the weekend, driven to Poland by police.

Despite the stalemate between Lukashenko and the opposition, protesters say they are determined not to tire. Some of the placards they carried Sunday showed a lively sense of humor.

“Lukashenka, start building a house near Yanukovych,”read one, referring to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych who fled to Russia in 2014 after months of anti-government protests.

“The collective farm went bankrupt,”said another, evoking Lukashenko’s former position as a collective farm director and his retention of largely state-controlled Soviet-style economy for Belarus, an Eastern European nation of 9.5 million.

Authorities also have revoked the accreditation of many Belarusian journalists and deported some foreign journalists, including two Moscow-based Associated Press journalists. AP’s Belarusian journalists were among those told their press credentials had been revoked.

—-

Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.

___

Follow all AP stories about the developments in Belarus at https://apnews.com/Belarus.

Tens of thousands attend Belarus protest against Lukashenko

Issued on: 06/09/2020 - 16:34

A participant gestures in front of barriers erected by Belarusian law enforcement officers during an opposition rally to protest against police brutality and to reject the presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus on September 6, 2020. © REUTERS/TUT.BY

Text by:FRANCE 24

Video by:Gulliver CRAGG
AT THE END OF THE ARTICLE

At least tens of thousands and possibly more Belarusian protesters staged a peaceful new march on Sunday, keeping the pressure on strongman Alexander Lukashenko who has refused to quit after his disputed re-election, turning instead to Russia for help to stay in power.

Troops, water cannon, armoured personnel carriers and armoured reconnaissance vehicles were deployed to the centre of Minsk ahead of the march and several metro stations were closed. The Belarusian authorities detained at least 100 protesters on Sunday across the country, Russia's Interfax news agency reported, citing the Belarus's interior ministry.




But protesters from all walks of life, from parents with children to students and from Catholic priests to prominent athletes, came out onto the streets in a show of defiance, an AFP correspondent reported from the scene.

Many held red-and-white flags and placards while a band beat drums and played other instruments. Some demonstrators danced or walked on stilts.

LGBT activists react together, with an old Belarusian national flag, in front of a police barricade blocking a street during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2020. Sunday's demonstration marked the beginning of the fifth week of daily protests calling for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's resignation in the wake of allegedly manipulated elections. (AP Photo/TUT.by)

Unprecedented protests broke out after Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet state for 26 years, claimed re-election with 80 percent of the vote on August 9.

Opposition rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya says she won the vote but Lukashenko's security forces have detained thousands of protesters, many of whom accused police of beatings and torture. Several people have died in the crackdown.

Tikhanovskaya left Belarus under pressure from authorities and took shelter in EU member Lithuania.

'Honest elections'

Belarusians have been demonstrating across the country for nearly a month even though the protest movement lacks a clear leader, with many activists jailed or forced out of the country.

On Sunday, the protesters marched towards Lukashenko's residence at the Independence Palace where they chanted "Tribunal" and "How much are you getting paid?"

Some participants held impromptu picnics near security cordons and water cannon close to the Independence Palace.

"I am in favour of new honest elections," said 28-year-old protester Nikita Sazanovich.

One protester held a portrait of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny who Germany says has been poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent

"Please only live," said the placard, referring to President Vladimir Putin's top foe. Navalny has been in a coma for the past two weeks as his aides suspect he drank a cup of poisoned tea at a Siberian airport.

"Sasha, have some tea. It's Putin's treat," some protesters chanted, referring to Lukashenko by his diminutive name.

Many say they will keep taking to the streets until Lukashenko quits.

"Lukashenko must go," said Nikolai Dyatlov, a 32-year-old protester.

"Why is our legitimately elected president located in a different country?" he said, referring to 37-year-old Tikhanovskaya.

More than 100,000 people are estimated to have flooded into the streets of the capital Minsk over the past three weekends and AFP journalists said Sunday the crowd in Minsk was even larger.

"Remember we are strong as long as we are united," Tikhanovskaya told supporters in a short video address ahead of the "March of Unity."

Russia has said it will respond to any Western attempts to "sway the situation" and Putin has raised the possibility of sending military support.

'Tough nut'

Putin has been keen to unify Russia and Belarus, and Moscow has accompanied its recent offers of economic and military aid with calls for tighter integration.

Lukashenko has in the past ruled out outright unification and sought to play Moscow off against the West but his options now are limited.

On Thursday, Lukashenko hosted Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and said the two countries had managed to agree on issues they "could not agree earlier."




The mustachioed leader said he planned to "dot all the i's" with Putin in Moscow in the next few weeks.

Lukashenko made headlines this week when he claimed that his security forces had intercepted German calls showing that Navalny's poisoning had been faked.

Belarusian state television broadcast the "intercept" in which a Mike in Warsaw and Nick in Berlin discuss Navalny's materials and call Lukashenko a "tough nut to crack."

Lukashenko also raised eyebrows last month when he brandished an assault rifle and had his 16-year-old son Nikolai appear next to him in a bulletproof vest while also wielding a weapon.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and