Tens of thousands of Belarusian opposition supporters gathered for the largest protest rally in recent history in Minsk, while President Alexander Lukashenko rejected calls to resign in a provocative speech.
On Sunday, crowds of demonstrators marched through the streets towards Central Independence Square, and an AFP journalist estimated the turnout of more than 100,000, a scale of protest observed since the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Belarusian opposition sympathizers joined the funeral rite of a protester who died Monday Photo: AFP/ Sergei GAPON
The Belarusian independent news Tut.by called the compilation “the largest in the history of independent Belarus”.
Columns of demonstrators raised symptoms of victory and sustained flowers and balloons as a sea of demonstrators accumulate in Independence Square, a center of nonviolent protests in days.
“Now we’re turning the story,” said Yekaterina Gorbina, 26, content manager.
Supporters of the Belarusian opposition piled up near Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester, died on August 10 Photo: AFP/Sergei GAPON
“Blood has been shed and other people never will.”
Darya Kukhta, 39, a mother of six, told the AFP: “We are starting a new Belarus. I am very pleased to see this with my own eyes.”
Protesters carried banners with slogans such as “You can’t wash the blood” and “Lukashenko will have to answer for torture and death.”
Map of Belarus Photo: AFP / Gillian HANDYSIDE
Opposition popular candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya had a weekend of protests after she left for neighbouring Lithuania after the disputed elections, which gave Lukashenko 80% of the vote.
Other major cities in the former Soviet country of nine million people also held giant meetings, local media reported.
More and more Belarusians took to the streets over the next week to condemn Lukashenko’s debatable victory and the next violent police crackdown and ill-treatment of detainees.
Belarusian opposition supporters pick up their mobile phones for a minute’s silence near state television and corporate radio Photo: AFP/Sergei GAPON
Unusually, heavily controlled state television broadcast a brief article about the “alternative manifestation” in Minsk, with no anti-Lukashenko slogans appearing.
Outside Belarus, lots of Czechs and Belarusians, some with the classic red and white Belarusian flag and portraits of Tikhanovskaya, piled up on Sunday in Prague’s old town for protests.
There were also smaller demonstrations in Romania and Poland, AFP newshounds said.
Belarusians in Minsk Independence Square oppose violence where police used rubber bullets, deafening grenades and, in at least one case, rounds to disperse demonstrations accusing Alexander Lukashenko of fraudulently winning his re-election Photo: AFPTV Alexander / GREBENKIN
Lukashenko, who has belarus for 26 years, faces an unprecedented challenge against its leaders.
Opposition protests have put the Belarusian leader, who has ruled his former Soviet country with an iron hand since 1994, expanding the tension Photo: AFP/Sergei GAPON
The 65-year-old strongman held a campaign-style rally in Independence Square before the opposition demonstration.
He told the supporters waving the flag: “I called them here to protect me Array … but for the first time in a quarter of a century, to protect their country and its independence.”
“The elections were valid,” Lukashenko said in a moving speech.
“We’ll give you the country!” He swore.
With pressure growing from the street and abroad after EU leaders agreed to draw up a list of targets for a new round of sanctions, Lukashenko has reached out to Russia, Belarus’s closest ally.
Moscow said on Sunday that it is in a position to provide assistance to the army if necessary.
The Kremlin said that in a call with Lukashenko, President Vladimir Putin had expressed Russia’s “willingness to provide mandatory assistance,” adding “if obligatory” through the CSTO army alliance between six former Soviet states.
Television funded through RT Kremlin reported this in the case of “threats from the outside army”.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets last week to denounce the outcome of the election and Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old political novice who ran after other potential candidates, adding her husband, was imprisoned.
A violent police crackdown on protesters has noticed that more than 6,700 people were arrested, many injured and two killed.
From exile in Lithuania, where she fled on Tuesday, Tikhanovskaya had a weekend of non-violent demonstrations.
Thousands of opposition supporters demonstrated in Minsk on Saturday, where a 34-year-old protester was killed by riots on Monday.
Authorities said the man, Alexander Taraisky, died when an explosive device he was holding exploded in his hand.
Following the posting of video images that contradict this, Interior Minister Yury Karayev told Tut.by On Sunday, “Maybe he was shot with non-lethal weapons,” claiming rubber bullets were used.
The opposition called for a general strike starting Monday after large numbers of state factory employees shot down equipment on Friday, a sign that Lukashenko’s classic base was opposing him.
Tikhanovskaya announced the creation of a Coordination Council for a power movement, calling on foreign governments to “help us organize a discussion with the Belarusian authorities.”
He said he would make new elections if Lukashenko resigned.