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Security forces in Belarus detained scores of protesters and have been filmed beating a person as he lay on the road, as the authorities launched a crackdown on mass demonstrations towards President Alexander Lukashenko.
Nearly a month after an election which Lukashenko’s opponents say he rigged, tens of 1000’s of individuals marched by way of Minsk, many decked out in red-and-white opposition colors and shouting “go away!” and “you’re a rat!”.
The authorities had laid barbed wire on the streets, and deployed army autos, prisoner vans, water cannons, helmeted riot police and plain garments officers with masks and truncheons to attempt to comprise the demonstrations.
At least 100 folks have been detained, the Russian information company Interfax quoted the federal government as saying, whereas the human rights group Spring-96 put the determine at greater than 200. Local media additionally confirmed protests and detentions in different cities.
A witness mentioned the cruel remedy of the protesters appeared to mark an escalation by the authorities after weeks of comparative restraint, though the violence was not as widespread and indiscriminate as in the protests’ first days.
Footage from native media outlet TUT.BY confirmed a masked man beating a protester as he lay on the bottom. Plain garments officers might be seen smashing the glass door of a restaurant to get at protesters sheltering inside.
“We ran into a cafe to hide from the riot police, they broke the glass, burst inside, pulled out three people, beat at least one,” Evgeny, a 28-year-old protester, mentioned whereas waiters cleaned up the smashed glass.
Jumping into the river
A witness described helmeted security forces and males in plain garments detaining a minimum of two dozen protesters close to President Alexander Lukashenko’s residence, and beating and kicking one other man as he lay on the bottom.
Some protesters left chanting “we’ll be back”.
An ambulance arrived at one other cafe, the place one other witness mentioned a person had been overwhelmed by males with truncheons and will solely stroll with problem.
TUT.BY described folks leaping into the Svislach River to flee the police in Minsk. Protests additionally passed off outdoors the capital. In the town of Brest close to the Polish border, video footage from TUT.BY confirmed ladies shouting “shame” at masked members of the security forces who dragged folks away.
Internal Affairs Minister Yuri Karayev defended the actions of the security forces.
“They talk about the brutality of the Belarusian police, and I want to say this: there are no more humane, restrained and cool-headed police anywhere in the world,” he mentioned, in keeping with the official Belta information company.
Lukashenko, in energy since 1994, denies electoral fraud. Buoyed by a present of assist from conventional ally Russia, he has rejected calls for brand spanking new elections.
Demonstrations have carried on all through the 4 weeks because the election, gaining in measurement on the weekends and drawing tens of 1000’s of individuals every Sunday.
Western nations have needed to steadiness sympathy with the Belarusian pro-democracy motion towards a need to not provoke Moscow. The disaster has examined European resolve at a second when nations are additionally weighing how to answer the suspected poisoning of Russian opposition determine Alexei Navalny.
In an interview revealed in the Financial Times on Sunday, Lithuania’s overseas minister urged the European Union to impose sanctions on Belarus and counter Russia’s affect or danger undermining the credibility of its overseas coverage.
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