The opponent Svetlana Tijanóvskaya, rival in the presidential office of the authoritarian president of Belarus, left his country on Tuesday and took refuge in Lithuania, after a second night of violently repressed protests against power that resulted in one death.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told Agence France-Presse that Tijanóvskaya was “safe” in his country, a neighbor of Belarus.
In a video, the opponent confirmed the “difficult decision” to leave her country. “I know that many will condemn me, many will hate me,” he said, with visible traces of weariness on his face.
“Children are the most important thing in life”added Tijanóvskaya, who during the campaign sent his two abroad for security reasons, fearing pressure from power.
The Belarusian border guards specified that he crossed the border by land at night.
According to his team, however, it was a forced departure under pressure from the authorities. “He had no choice”, Olga Kovalkova, one of her allies, told AFP.
On Monday, the opposition woman had been held for several hours in the electoral commission, to which she had applied to file a complaint for electoral fraud.
Svetlana Tijanóvskaya, a 37-year-old rookie in politics, emerged in a few weeks as an unexpected rival for Lukashenko, 65, the last 26 in power.
This English teacher replaced her husband Sergei, a well-known video blogger, arrested in May in the presidential race.
After Sunday’s election, Tijanóvskaya urged Lukashenko to “give up power”, stating that she did not recognize the official results that gave the president the winner with 80.08% of the votes, against 10% for her.
However, he refused to take part in the demonstrations harshly repressed on Sunday and Monday nights by the security forces, which used sound grenades and rubber bullets and made numerous arrests to end the protests in Minsk.
This Tuesday, calls for a general strike were circulating on social media.
Barricades and a dead man
On Monday night, barricades were erected in the central streets of Minsk, in a sign of rising tensions, and several explosions were heard.
A protester was killed when an explosive object that he wanted to throw at the security forces exploded in his hands, according to Belarusian police.
“Shame!” Chanted the protesters, who confronted the police with sticks and their bare hands, according to AFP journalists and witnesses.
In recent days, the authorities redoubled their efforts to stop Tijanóvskaya and did not hesitate to arrest a dozen of his collaborators.
One of his allies, Veronika Tsepkalo, wife of an opponent who was prevented from participating in the presidential election, left Belarus on Sunday and settled in Russia.
That night after the election there were 3,000 detainees, as well as 50 civilians and 39 police officers injured after spontaneous demonstrations in 33 towns, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
Lukashenko called the protesters Remote-controlled “sheep” from London, Warsaw and Prague, and he assured that he would not let his country be “torn to pieces.”
In 2010, after the presidential one, opposition demonstrations had been brutally repressed.
Western convictions
In the West, the White House said Monday it was “deeply concerned” and urged authorities to allow anti-government protests amid allegations of fraud.
“The intimidation of opposition candidates and the arrest of peaceful protesters” were among the many factors that “clouded the process,” said President Donald Trump’s press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany.
Earlier, the European Commission, as well as France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and NATO, had condemned the repression. Poland called for an EU summit devoted to this matter.
Instead, the Russian and Chinese leaders, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and the Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro, congratulated President Lukashenko.
In recent weeks, the Belarusian president had accused Moscow of wanting to subdue his country and of seeking to destabilize it, in particular by sending mercenaries.
The election campaign was marked by an unprecedented fervor for Tijanóvskaya. Before his emergence, Lukashenko’s main rivals had been eliminated from the presidential race.
The mobilization takes place amid economic difficulties, exacerbated by tensions with Russia, and Lukashenko’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, which he called “psychosis.”
–
