According to news agencies in central Minsk, more than 100,000 protesters demanded the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko. Authorities called on participants to break up and warned against using force if they disobeyed. Police and military units were concentrated in the area, but did not intervene. Protests also took place in Brest, Grodno, Vitebsk and other cities.
The white-red-white crowd filled Independence Square and the adjacent streets and chanted slogans such as “Leave!”, “Freedom!” or “Lukashenko to Anton” (a car for transporting prisoners and detainees), said an AFP reporter. More than 100,000 protesters gathered in the center of the capital for the second Sunday in a row.
“If (Lukashenko) really won the election, why are so many people going out to protest against him?” said 18-year-old Jauhen. “Lukashenko wants us to break up and live as before. But he will never be the same again,” said 28-year-old Nikita. Lukashenko, who has been in power for 26 years, has never faced such numerous and persistent resistance, AFP added.
The DPA writes about “the unprecedented cohesion of citizens of all classes in the country, controlled in the Soviet style even thirty years after the fall of communism.” According to her, the protests in Minsk are neither anti-Russian nor pro-European. “I want this terror to end so that we can finally live freely,” said the 52-year-old historian Sviatlana. “This regime and this dictator have so much blood on their hands,” she added in tears.
“Belarus has changed. Lukashenko has been able to unite everyone, from workers to intelligence,” Slava Chirkov told the AP, who came to the demonstration with his wife and son and the banner “Lukashenko, your milk is sour!” in allusion to the previous presidential career of the head of an agricultural cooperative.
“Are you going to work for a dictator? A strike – that’s our answer,” he said at a demonstration by the leader of the strike committee at the Minsk tractor factory.
Lukashenko in a bulletproof vest and with a weapon
According to Kommersant, members of the coordination council, set up by the opposition for a smooth transfer of power, also took part in the demonstration. Its member, Maryja Kalesnikava, urged people not to approach the war memorial guarded by soldiers. Musicians stood between the protesters and the soldiers, and the people finally broke up in peace.
During the hundreds of thousands of demonstrations – and some media estimated the number of protesters to double or more – footage appeared on social networks and in the media, capturing 60-year-old Lukashenko in a bulletproof vest and a gun in his hand. The Tut.by server noted that Lukashenko’s Kalashnikov was missing a stack.
Protests erupted after the August 9 presidential election, which Lukashenko claims to have won for the sixth time, this time with more than 80 percent of the vote, while opposition candidate Svyatlan Tsichanouska won 10 percent. Many Belarusians consider this result to be falsified. The opposition, like the European Union, does not recognize the election result. The protests, which were not suppressed by brutal police crackdown in the first days after the election, continued on Sunday on the fifteenth day.
The dictator is diverting attention, pointing to NATO, Lithuania and Poland
The North Atlantic Alliance has refused to gather troops on the Polish and Lithuanian borders with Belarus, according to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the BBC reported. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has denied the allegations of a planned revolution supported by foreign powers.
NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said the alliance was “not a threat to Belarus or any other country” and did not concentrate any troops in the region. “Our position is strictly defensive,” the spokeswoman added.
Earlier this week, during a visit to a Belarusian factory, the president admitted the possibility of new elections – subject, however, to the adoption of a new constitution. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced on Sunday that Moscow considered the reform of the Belarusian constitution to be a viable solution to the current political crisis, Reuters reports. According to the head of Russian diplomacy, Moscow also believes that the situation in Belarus is calming down.
Lukashenko warned of a revolution planned by foreign powers on Saturday during a visit by a military garrison in Grodno near the Polish border, urging soldiers to be on the lookout. According to him, the enemy army is preparing in Poland and Lithuania, which both countries reject.
“The (Lukashenko) regime is trying to divert attention from Belarus’ internal problems with unsubstantiated claims about imaginary external threats,” the Lithuanian head of state responded.
One of the representatives of the Polish presidential office called Lukashenko’s claim “propaganda of the (Belarusian) regime”. “Poland… has no such intention,” said the official.
A living chain in Prague
The protests also had a response in the Czech Republic. On Sunday evening, about two hundred people formed a symbolic human chain on Prague’s Charles Bridge to express their support for human rights and free elections in Belarus. People met around 6 p.m. Most of them were dressed in white and red clothes, carried flowers and also the traditional red and white Belarusian flags, which were the state symbol between 1991 and 1995. Unlike previous events, they did not have banners with them or chanted any slogans.
Many people passing by the chain also expressed support for Belarus. The event officially ended after about half an hour, some of the participants finally sang the Belarusian and Czech anthem. However, some people remained in the live chain even after the event.
The event was organized by the Belarusians initiative in the Czech Republic. According to the organizers, it refers to the events of August 23, 1989, when a quarter of the population of the Baltic states formed a living chain with a length of 670 kilometers and thus connected the capitals of Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. The aim of the protest at the time was to prove that Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia want to get rid of the Soviet occupation and restore their independence.
According to the organizers, similar events as in Prague also took place in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Georgia, Moldova and other countries. From the Lithuanian capital Vilnius to the border with Belarus, about 30 kilometers away, a chain of about 50,000 people formed, including Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and his predecessor Dalia Grybauskaite. According to the Russian BBC, about 400 people, including Latvian President Egils Levits, came to the event in support of the Belarusians in Riga.
