Belarus Says More Than 600 Detained As Mass Anti-Lukashenka Protests Continue

MINSK — Authorities in Belarus say they detained 633 protesters on September 6 as tens of thousands marched in the capital and other cities as part of the continuing opposition-led effort to pressure President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to resign.

The Interior Ministry’s announcement on the number of detained represents a significantly higher figure than earlier estimates by rights campaigners and others monitoring the continuing crackdown.

They had cited around 180 detentions in Minsk and dozens more in Brest, Baranavichy, and the western city of Hrodna on September 6, the 29th straight day of anti-Lukashenka protests since a disputed August 9 presidential election.

Confrontations between police and demonstrators were also reported to the east in Mahilyou and in the southern city of Homel.

Lukashenka, who has ruled the country for 26 years, has refused to hold talks with his opponents, and rebuffed calls to hold a new election.

Officials say he won with 80 percent of the vote, a number that democracy activists and the country’s leading opposition figure, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, dispute.

Opposition groups are also calling for the release of political prisoners and for an independent investigation of the police crackdown that swept up thousands in the days after the vote.

Smaller protests have already begun in Homel and other places early on September 7.

Tsikhanouskaya, who ran for president after her husband was jailed following his announcement he would run, said on September 5 that her country is in “deep political crisis.”

“Belarusians have changed. They have woken up,” Tikhanouskaya said from Vilnius, where she fled days after the vote.

Tsikhanouskaya is reportedly scheduled to visit Warsaw this week to hold meetings with top Polish officials.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on September 6 repeated a call for an “inclusive national dialogue,” saying “impressive mass demonstrations” around Belarus “show determination of Belarusian people to achieve their freedoms, rights & democracy” in the face of “arrests, intimidation & violence.”

Ahead of the September 6 protests, Lukashenka’s security services warned of a crackdown against those who decided to participate in the unsanctioned demonstration in the capital.

But scenes from Minsk showed massive crowds and a long column of protesters on the avenue leading to the presidential palace, which was guarded by police in riot gear, and protected by metal fencing and water cannons.

Demonstrators were chanting, “Long live Belarus!” and, “Shame!” and carrying red-and-white flags and banners, a symbol of the opposition that has been banned by the authorities.

Police later dispersed protesters with the help of tear gas.

On September 5, two unsanctioned rallies organized separately by university students and women’s groups took place in Minsk.

News agencies reported that dozens of students were dragged from the streets at those events and pushed into vans by masked security agents.

In addition to thousands of detentions, Belarusian authorities have silenced local journalists and expelled foreign journalists, and prosecuted many opposition leaders.

With reporting by Current Time and Reuters