Home » News » Revolt gains strength in Belarus after reports of torture in prison and strikes in factories | International

Revolt gains strength in Belarus after reports of torture in prison and strikes in factories | International

The opposition presidential candidate in Belarus He called this Friday for “peaceful demonstrations” during the weekend, while strikes in factories multiplied, a sign of a growing revolt against the president Alexandre Lukashenko despite brutal repression.

In parallel, the European Union planned to discuss sanctions against the Belarusian government for human rights violations, at a time when testimonies of torture appear against detained protesters.

Opposition Svetlana Tijanóvskaya, who took refuge in Lithuania earlier in the week, demonstrated for the first time since Tuesday to call through an online video to peaceful demonstrations across the country.

“I call on all mayors to organize peaceful demonstrations in each city on August 15 and 16,” said this 37-year-old political novice whose candidacy sparked a wave of fervor in this former Soviet republic.

Tjanóvskaya considered the situation “critical” and exhorted “the power to stop this and move on to dialogue.” Belarusians will never again want to live under [este] power, ”he insisted.

This Friday, hundreds of workers in Minsk tractor and car factories left their jobs to denounce the brutal repression of the demonstrations against the questioned re-election of Lukashenko.

The workers and employees gathered in the yards of the MTZ (tractors) and MAZ (vehicles) factories, according to journalists from Agence France-Presse.

Lukashenko, in power for 26 years, had previously warned against such actions, “blessed bread for foreign competition.”

Confronted since Thursday by thousands of people dressed in white and with flowers in their hands that form human chains, the Belarusian authorities gave signals of retreat.

The protests against Lukashenko’s victory, officially with 80% of the votes and judged fraudulent by the protesters, were violently repressed by the forces of order, with a balance of two dead, dozens injured and at least 6,700 arrested.

France Media Agency

Torture in prison

Since Thursday, authorities announced that they had released more than 2,000 protesters.

Deprived of water, food and sleep during their incarceration, tortured with electricity and burned with cigarettes, Dozens of protesters were locked in cells for four or six people, according to the testimony of several of them to AFP.

“They hit me very hard on the head (…), my back is full of bruises from blows with batons,” said 25-year-old Maxim Dovjenko, who He assured that he had not even participated in the demonstrations but that he was at the scene at the time of the police repression.

Mikhail Shernenkov, a 43-year-old businessman, showed his completely purple buttocks and told AFP that he had been tortured with electricity and beaten with batons.

France Media Agency
France Media Agency

The NGO Amnesty International said on Thursday that it had been aware of cases of protesters “Naked, beaten and threatened with rape” during your arrest.

The release of protesters, especially from the Okreskina prison in Minsk, led to exciting reunion scenes on Thursday night. Many of those who recovered their freedom had contorted faces and did not want to speak.

France Media Agency
France Media Agency

“A new president”

On Thursday night, tens of thousands of people gathered in different parts of Minsk and in at least six other cities, without police intervention.

“We need a new president,” said the protesters’ banners in the capital. Many of them made the “V” for victory, according to an AFP photographer.

More than 1,000 Belarusian researchers signed a letter “against violence” and medical personnel gathered in front of their facilities. Artists from the Minsk Philharmonic sang patriotic songs at the door of the building that houses them.

France Media Agency
France Media Agency

European sanctions

The Belarusian authorities confirmed the death of a detainee and a protester in Minsk. Too they acknowledged an incident where live fire was fired on Tuesday, injuring a person.

A hundred policemen have been injured, of which 28 are hospitalized. No official balance has been provided on the protesters.

This week, the United States and the European Union denounced that the elections were fraudulent and condemned the repression. Europeans are considering imposing sanctions on Minsk.

The EU Foreign Ministers held an extraordinary meeting this Friday to discuss possible sanctions against the Belarusian power.

Both Germany and the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen expressed their support for measures of this type.

Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei assured on his side that his country was ready for “a constructive and objective dialogue with its foreign partners on all issues related to the development of events in Belarus.”

Russia, for its part, denounced on Thursday “attempts from abroad to” divide society and destabilize “its neighbor.

Lukashenko, 65, has never let the opposition, which lacks representation in parliament, take hold. The latest wave of protests, in 2010, was also severely repressed.

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