POST MODERN #ANTISTALINISM
Thousands protest in Belarus amid continued crackdown
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Thousands of protesters in Belarus swarmed the streets of the capital to demand the resignation of the country’s longtime president for the 13th straight Sunday and encountered police using stun grenades to break up the crowds and making warning shots in the air from what authorities said were “non-lethal weapons.”
As many as 20,000 people took part in the rally, the Visana human rights center estimated. Large crowds of people gathered in the eastern part of Minsk headed toward Kurapaty, a wooded area on the city’s outskirts where over 200,000 people were executed by Soviet secret police during Stalinist-era purges.
Demonstrators carried banners reading, “The people’s memory (lasts) longer than a life of a dictatorship” and “Stop torturing your people!”
The crowds directed chants of “Go away!” at Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who won his sixth term in an Aug. 9 election that is widely seen as rigged. Lukashenko’s crushing victory over his popular, inexperienced challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, has triggered the largest and the most sustained wave of mass protests of his 26 years in power.
The 66-year-old former state farm director, who was once nicknamed “Europe’s Latest Dictator,” has relentlessly suppressed opposition and independent media in Belarus but struggled to quell the recent unrest. Large protest crowds have assembled in the streets of Minsk and other cities almost daily, despite police countering the demonstrations with water cannons, stun grenades, rubber bullets and mass detentions.
The Belarusian Interior Ministry threatened to use firearms against the rally-goers “if need be.” On Sunday, police acknowledged officers fired several warning shots into the air during the demonstration in Minsk “to prevent violations of the law,” but maintained that “non-lethal weapons” were used.
Armored off-road vehicles equipped with machine guns were seen in Minsk for the first time in almost three months of protests, along with water cannon vehicles and other anti-riot equipment. Several metro stations were closed, and mobile internet service did not work.
Police detained over 250 people in Minsk and other Belarusian cities where protests were held Sunday, according to the Viasna center. Several journalists were among the detainees, and many of those detained were beaten up, human rights activists said.
“The authorities are trying to close the lid on the boiling Belarusian pot more tightly, but history knows very well what this leads to,” Viasna leader Ales Bialiatski said.
Tsikhanouskaya entered the presidential race instead of her husband, a popular opposition blogger, after he was jailed in May. She challenged the results of the election in which she secured 10% of the vote to the incumbent president’s 80%, then left Belarus for Lithuania under pressure from the authorities.
She issued a statement Sunday in support of the ongoing protests.
“The terror is happening once again in our country right now,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “We haven’t forgotten our past, we won’t forget what is happening now.”
Over 15,000 people have been detained since the presidential election, and human rights activists have declared more than 100 of them to be political prisoners.
All prominent members at the helm of the opposition’s Coordination Council, which was formed to push for a transition of power, have either been jailed or left the country. One more activist on the Council, Denis Gotto, was detained during Sunday’s demonstration.
Lukashenko scoffed at suggestions of dialogue with the opposition and instead intensified the crackdown on protesters, ordering officials to expel students from universities for participating in demonstrations and to take action against plant workers that go on strike.
On Thursday, the government shut Belarus’ borders with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. They said the move was intended to stem the spread of the coronavirus, although officials previously accused neighboring countries of trying to destabilize Belarus.
Starting Sunday, all foreigners — with the exception of diplomats, government officials, individuals with permits to work in Belarus and people in some other narrow categories — were banned from crossing the country’s land borders. Foreigners, however, are allowed to travel into Belarus via the Minsk National Airport.
Tens of thousands protest in Belarus, defying warning shots
By Tom Balmforth
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Riot police fired warning shots into the air, used stun grenades and arrested more than 200 people to deter tens of thousands of Belarusians who marched through Minsk on Sunday to demand veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko leave power.
Mass demonstrations have flooded the capital for 12 straight weeks since a disputed election, ratcheting up pressure on the embattled leader of 26 years who rejects accusations the vote was rigged and says he has no intention of quitting.
This week Lukashenko partially closed the border to the west, replaced his interior minister and said that any protester who lays a hand on officers policing the protests should “at least leave without hands”.
Tens of thousands of people swept through Minsk in at least two columns, the Nasha Niva newspaper reported.
The Vesna-96 rights group published the names of 221 people who had been detained.
Senior police officials have threatened to use firearms against protesters if needed.
“The situation is really alarming and everyone’s mood is tense,” one protester who requested anonymity said by phone.
“Police buses and equipment are constantly driving past the column. It feels like people are ready for any kind of escalation.”
A witness told Reuters that riot police used force to disperse marchers who had marched towards Kurapaty, a site on the outskirts of Minsk that is a memorial to victims of execution by Soviet secret police.
“People got to a field near Kurapaty, (police) buses pulled up and chased after people at top speed, then they started throwing grenades. What’s more, they were throwing them into the thick of the crowd,” the witness said by phone on condition of anonymity.
A man in civilian clothing chased a resident through a courtyard near one protest route firing a paintball gun at them in footage published by the RFE/RL media outlet.
Video posted on opposition social media showed a crowd of people chanting “We believe, we can, we will win!” while marching through the streets. The video footage could not independently be verified.
KYIV, Ukraine — Nearly three months after Belarus' authoritarian president's re-election to a sixth term in a vote widely seen as rigged, demonstrators keep swarming the streets of Belarusian cities to demand his resignation in the most massive and sustained wave of protests the ex-Soviet nation has ever seen.
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People help a woman after she collided with a police during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020. Nearly three months after Belarus' authoritarian president's re-election to a sixth term in a vote widely seen as rigged, the continuing rallies have cast an unprecedented challenge to his 26-year rule. (AP Photo)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Thousands of protesters in Belarus swarmed the streets of the capital to demand the resignation of the country’s longtime president for the 13th straight Sunday and encountered police using stun grenades to break up the crowds and making warning shots in the air from what authorities said were “non-lethal weapons.”
As many as 20,000 people took part in the rally, the Visana human rights center estimated. Large crowds of people gathered in the eastern part of Minsk headed toward Kurapaty, a wooded area on the city’s outskirts where over 200,000 people were executed by Soviet secret police during Stalinist-era purges.
Demonstrators carried banners reading, “The people’s memory (lasts) longer than a life of a dictatorship” and “Stop torturing your people!”
The crowds directed chants of “Go away!” at Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who won his sixth term in an Aug. 9 election that is widely seen as rigged. Lukashenko’s crushing victory over his popular, inexperienced challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, has triggered the largest and the most sustained wave of mass protests of his 26 years in power.
The 66-year-old former state farm director, who was once nicknamed “Europe’s Latest Dictator,” has relentlessly suppressed opposition and independent media in Belarus but struggled to quell the recent unrest. Large protest crowds have assembled in the streets of Minsk and other cities almost daily, despite police countering the demonstrations with water cannons, stun grenades, rubber bullets and mass detentions.
The Belarusian Interior Ministry threatened to use firearms against the rally-goers “if need be.” On Sunday, police acknowledged officers fired several warning shots into the air during the demonstration in Minsk “to prevent violations of the law,” but maintained that “non-lethal weapons” were used.
Armored off-road vehicles equipped with machine guns were seen in Minsk for the first time in almost three months of protests, along with water cannon vehicles and other anti-riot equipment. Several metro stations were closed, and mobile internet service did not work.
Police detained over 250 people in Minsk and other Belarusian cities where protests were held Sunday, according to the Viasna center. Several journalists were among the detainees, and many of those detained were beaten up, human rights activists said.
“The authorities are trying to close the lid on the boiling Belarusian pot more tightly, but history knows very well what this leads to,” Viasna leader Ales Bialiatski said.
Tsikhanouskaya entered the presidential race instead of her husband, a popular opposition blogger, after he was jailed in May. She challenged the results of the election in which she secured 10% of the vote to the incumbent president’s 80%, then left Belarus for Lithuania under pressure from the authorities.
She issued a statement Sunday in support of the ongoing protests.
“The terror is happening once again in our country right now,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “We haven’t forgotten our past, we won’t forget what is happening now.”
Over 15,000 people have been detained since the presidential election, and human rights activists have declared more than 100 of them to be political prisoners.
All prominent members at the helm of the opposition’s Coordination Council, which was formed to push for a transition of power, have either been jailed or left the country. One more activist on the Council, Denis Gotto, was detained during Sunday’s demonstration.
Lukashenko scoffed at suggestions of dialogue with the opposition and instead intensified the crackdown on protesters, ordering officials to expel students from universities for participating in demonstrations and to take action against plant workers that go on strike.
On Thursday, the government shut Belarus’ borders with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. They said the move was intended to stem the spread of the coronavirus, although officials previously accused neighboring countries of trying to destabilize Belarus.
Starting Sunday, all foreigners — with the exception of diplomats, government officials, individuals with permits to work in Belarus and people in some other narrow categories — were banned from crossing the country’s land borders. Foreigners, however, are allowed to travel into Belarus via the Minsk National Airport.
By Tom Balmforth
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Riot police fired warning shots into the air, used stun grenades and arrested more than 200 people to deter tens of thousands of Belarusians who marched through Minsk on Sunday to demand veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko leave power.
Mass demonstrations have flooded the capital for 12 straight weeks since a disputed election, ratcheting up pressure on the embattled leader of 26 years who rejects accusations the vote was rigged and says he has no intention of quitting.
This week Lukashenko partially closed the border to the west, replaced his interior minister and said that any protester who lays a hand on officers policing the protests should “at least leave without hands”.
Tens of thousands of people swept through Minsk in at least two columns, the Nasha Niva newspaper reported.
The Vesna-96 rights group published the names of 221 people who had been detained.
Senior police officials have threatened to use firearms against protesters if needed.
“The situation is really alarming and everyone’s mood is tense,” one protester who requested anonymity said by phone.
“Police buses and equipment are constantly driving past the column. It feels like people are ready for any kind of escalation.”
A witness told Reuters that riot police used force to disperse marchers who had marched towards Kurapaty, a site on the outskirts of Minsk that is a memorial to victims of execution by Soviet secret police.
“People got to a field near Kurapaty, (police) buses pulled up and chased after people at top speed, then they started throwing grenades. What’s more, they were throwing them into the thick of the crowd,” the witness said by phone on condition of anonymity.
A man in civilian clothing chased a resident through a courtyard near one protest route firing a paintball gun at them in footage published by the RFE/RL media outlet.
Video posted on opposition social media showed a crowd of people chanting “We believe, we can, we will win!” while marching through the streets. The video footage could not independently be verified.
https://www.reuters.com/video/?videoId=OVD2QR8ZL&jwsource=em
Mobile phone internet in the capital was unavailable and several metro stations were briefly closed down.
Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Frances Kerry
Mobile phone internet in the capital was unavailable and several metro stations were briefly closed down.
Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Frances Kerry
Nearly 3 months after vote, Belarus protests still go strong
KYIV, Ukraine — Nearly three months after Belarus' authoritarian president's re-election to a sixth term in a vote widely seen as rigged, demonstrators keep swarming the streets of Belarusian cities to demand his resignation in the most massive and sustained wave of protests the ex-Soviet nation has ever seen.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
While President Alexander Lukashenko has relied on massive arrests and intimidation tactics to hold on to power, the continuing rallies have cast an unprecedented challenge to his 26-year rule.
Authorities have responded to protests triggered by Aug. 9 election that gave Lukashenko a landslide victory over Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya by unleashing a violent post-election crackdown. Police dispersed peaceful demonstrators with stun grenades and rubber bullets, detained thousands and beat hundreds, which caused protests to swell and prompted the U.S. and the European Union to introduce sanctions against Belarusian officials.
Tsikhanouskaya, who went to Lithuania after the vote under pressure from authorities, called for a nationwide strike this week that so far has failed to halt production at state-run industrial plants forming the backbone of the Belarusian economy. But observers predict that economic troubles amid a surge in coronavirus infections will fuel discontent and steadily erode Lukashenko's grip on power.
By putting forward an ultimatum to Lukashenko to resign by Oct. 25 or face the strike, Tsikhanouskaya has managed to mobilize and re-invigorate her supporters after nearly three months of protests. About 200,000 demonstrators flooded the Belarusian capital last Sunday, one of the biggest rallies since the protests began.
Several hundred women, some clad in Halloween outfits, marched across the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Saturday while demanding that Lukashenko step down. A bigger protest is planned for Sunday.
Authorities, meanwhile, have focused on derailing the opposition efforts to stage strikes at major state factories. They have moved methodically to arrest strike organizers, threatened workers with dismissals for joining the action and deployed officers of the State Security Committee still known under its Soviet name KGB to monitor the situation at industrial plants.
Lukashenko this week charged that “a terrorist war” is being waged against the government “on some fronts,” accusing the largely peaceful protesters of “radicalizing." Following his orders, over 300 students are facing dismissal from their universities for taking part in protests.
While thousands of students and retirees took to the streets in Minsk pressing for Lukashenko's resignation, and some small business owners closed their doors earlier this week, most state enterprises have continued to operate as usual.
In the western city of Grodno, the managers of a manufacturing plant that makes nitrogen compounds and fertilizers dismissed about 50 workers who took part in this week's strike and quickly recruited others to replace them.
“The scared workers couldn’t be expected to back the opposition’s political demands,” said Alexander Yaroshuk, the leader of the Congress of Democratic Unions, an association of independent labour unions. “The opposition only has managed to create some hotbeds of strikes at factories, which already can be considered a big achievement in conditions when KGB officers have flooded factory shops and raised pressure on strike organizing committees.”
But Yaroshuk noted that even though the nationwide strike hasn't materialized, the economic stagnation will likely foment unrest in the coming months.
“The worsening economic situation could transform isolated hotbeds into the flames of a real strike,” he said.
According to the official statistics, the Belarusian economy has contracted by 1.3% in the first nine months of the year as the nation's main export markets have shrunk under the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Lukashenko’s cavalier dismissal of the coronavirus threat has added to the public frustration over the 66-year-old ex-state farm director's iron-fisted rule, helping fuel protests.
Facing a run on the national currency amid the unrest, the Belarusian government has spent $1.5 billion, or about one-fifth of the nation's hard currency reserves, to shore up the Belarusian ruble in August and September.
“The economy is becoming Lukashenko's main enemy,” said Minsk-based analyst Valery Karbalevich. “Lukashenko needs money to pay workers for their loyalty and law enforcement officers for their brutality. His regime is quickly running out of cash and losing support,”
Faced with the opposition's ultimatum and the threat of a nationwide strike, Belarus on Thursday shut its borders with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine for most visitors. Lukashenko also reshuffled his top officials this week, appointing Interior Minister Yuri Karayev and Security Council Secretary Valery Vakulchik his envoys to the westernmost Grodno and Brest regions bordering Poland and Lithuania.
Tsikhanouskaya's adviser Franak Viachorka, argued that the shakeup reflected Lukashenko's nervousness.
“Lukashenko can't trust local authorities in western regions, and so he has to put his trusted law enforcement officials in charge there,” Viachorka said.
Viachorka also argued that the reshuffle may reflect Lukashenko's fear that his main ally and sponsor, Russia, could be talking to his top lieutenants behind his back.
The Kremlin has backed Lukashenko amid Western pressure and provided a $1.5-billion loan to help refinance Belarus' debt to Russia. But many observers believe that Moscow could reach out quietly to Lukashenko's entourage on a possible successor as his authority crumbles.
“Lukashenko has failed to quash the protests in nearly three months, and that shows the scale of discontent in the country and pushes the Kremlin to search for new scenarios and partners in Belarus,” Karbalevich said. “It opens a window of opportunity for the opposition to hold talks with Moscow, which until that moment has refused to talk to Tsikhanouskaya and her team.”
Viachorka, Tsikhanouskaya's adviser, said that the opposition will continue pushing for the creation of parallel structures of power, “exacerbating the crisis of legitimacy for Lukashenko” and pushing him into talks on a transition of power.
The Associated Press
While President Alexander Lukashenko has relied on massive arrests and intimidation tactics to hold on to power, the continuing rallies have cast an unprecedented challenge to his 26-year rule.
Authorities have responded to protests triggered by Aug. 9 election that gave Lukashenko a landslide victory over Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya by unleashing a violent post-election crackdown. Police dispersed peaceful demonstrators with stun grenades and rubber bullets, detained thousands and beat hundreds, which caused protests to swell and prompted the U.S. and the European Union to introduce sanctions against Belarusian officials.
Tsikhanouskaya, who went to Lithuania after the vote under pressure from authorities, called for a nationwide strike this week that so far has failed to halt production at state-run industrial plants forming the backbone of the Belarusian economy. But observers predict that economic troubles amid a surge in coronavirus infections will fuel discontent and steadily erode Lukashenko's grip on power.
By putting forward an ultimatum to Lukashenko to resign by Oct. 25 or face the strike, Tsikhanouskaya has managed to mobilize and re-invigorate her supporters after nearly three months of protests. About 200,000 demonstrators flooded the Belarusian capital last Sunday, one of the biggest rallies since the protests began.
Several hundred women, some clad in Halloween outfits, marched across the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Saturday while demanding that Lukashenko step down. A bigger protest is planned for Sunday.
Authorities, meanwhile, have focused on derailing the opposition efforts to stage strikes at major state factories. They have moved methodically to arrest strike organizers, threatened workers with dismissals for joining the action and deployed officers of the State Security Committee still known under its Soviet name KGB to monitor the situation at industrial plants.
Lukashenko this week charged that “a terrorist war” is being waged against the government “on some fronts,” accusing the largely peaceful protesters of “radicalizing." Following his orders, over 300 students are facing dismissal from their universities for taking part in protests.
While thousands of students and retirees took to the streets in Minsk pressing for Lukashenko's resignation, and some small business owners closed their doors earlier this week, most state enterprises have continued to operate as usual.
In the western city of Grodno, the managers of a manufacturing plant that makes nitrogen compounds and fertilizers dismissed about 50 workers who took part in this week's strike and quickly recruited others to replace them.
“The scared workers couldn’t be expected to back the opposition’s political demands,” said Alexander Yaroshuk, the leader of the Congress of Democratic Unions, an association of independent labour unions. “The opposition only has managed to create some hotbeds of strikes at factories, which already can be considered a big achievement in conditions when KGB officers have flooded factory shops and raised pressure on strike organizing committees.”
But Yaroshuk noted that even though the nationwide strike hasn't materialized, the economic stagnation will likely foment unrest in the coming months.
“The worsening economic situation could transform isolated hotbeds into the flames of a real strike,” he said.
According to the official statistics, the Belarusian economy has contracted by 1.3% in the first nine months of the year as the nation's main export markets have shrunk under the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Lukashenko’s cavalier dismissal of the coronavirus threat has added to the public frustration over the 66-year-old ex-state farm director's iron-fisted rule, helping fuel protests.
Facing a run on the national currency amid the unrest, the Belarusian government has spent $1.5 billion, or about one-fifth of the nation's hard currency reserves, to shore up the Belarusian ruble in August and September.
“The economy is becoming Lukashenko's main enemy,” said Minsk-based analyst Valery Karbalevich. “Lukashenko needs money to pay workers for their loyalty and law enforcement officers for their brutality. His regime is quickly running out of cash and losing support,”
Faced with the opposition's ultimatum and the threat of a nationwide strike, Belarus on Thursday shut its borders with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine for most visitors. Lukashenko also reshuffled his top officials this week, appointing Interior Minister Yuri Karayev and Security Council Secretary Valery Vakulchik his envoys to the westernmost Grodno and Brest regions bordering Poland and Lithuania.
Tsikhanouskaya's adviser Franak Viachorka, argued that the shakeup reflected Lukashenko's nervousness.
“Lukashenko can't trust local authorities in western regions, and so he has to put his trusted law enforcement officials in charge there,” Viachorka said.
Viachorka also argued that the reshuffle may reflect Lukashenko's fear that his main ally and sponsor, Russia, could be talking to his top lieutenants behind his back.
The Kremlin has backed Lukashenko amid Western pressure and provided a $1.5-billion loan to help refinance Belarus' debt to Russia. But many observers believe that Moscow could reach out quietly to Lukashenko's entourage on a possible successor as his authority crumbles.
“Lukashenko has failed to quash the protests in nearly three months, and that shows the scale of discontent in the country and pushes the Kremlin to search for new scenarios and partners in Belarus,” Karbalevich said. “It opens a window of opportunity for the opposition to hold talks with Moscow, which until that moment has refused to talk to Tsikhanouskaya and her team.”
Viachorka, Tsikhanouskaya's adviser, said that the opposition will continue pushing for the creation of parallel structures of power, “exacerbating the crisis of legitimacy for Lukashenko” and pushing him into talks on a transition of power.
The Associated Press
