3/25/21
Belarusian authorities say they detained more than 200 people as citizens took to the streets of Minsk and other cities, heeding a call by opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya to start a new wave of protests against Alyaksandr Lukashenka to coincide with the anniversary of the short-lived Belarusian People's Republic. Tsikhanouskaya urged Belarusians to use the annual Freedom Day celebration to hold street rallies across the country to pressure the authoritarian leader and declare their unity against the political crisis that has enveloped Belarus since Lukashenka was declared the winner of a presidential election in August 2020 that the opposition says was rigged. But the event in Minsk faced challenges from police, who refused to agree to provide security for the activists, and Amnesty International expressed concern about how authorities would respond. Security forces, including police and Interior Ministry troops, military vehicles, and police vans were positioned across Minsk ahead of the planned action. By late afternoon, Belarusians, many of them holding the red-white flag of the first republic, made their way to the center of Minsk, with some gathering on October Square, while cars honked their horns in solidarity. The Interior Ministry said in the evening that more than 200 people had been detained in connection with unauthorized gatherings throughout the country.
The Belarusian human rights monitor Vyasna (Spring) reported 126 detentions in the capital alone. The Nexta Telegram channel, which has mobilized and coordinated demonstrations, urged protesters to march through courtyards and organize flash mobs. Nexta has also called for mass protests on March 27, casting it as "the day we start the second wave of street protests." Franak Viacorka, an adviser to Tsikhanouskaya, predicted the large protests the country witnessed in the wake of the election would return. "People need to be shoulder to shoulder with one another, to see again that they are the majority, to feel that energy they got from those large marches," Viacorka told Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. Ahead of the planned action, the commander of Interior Ministry troops, Mikalay Karpyankou, described Belarusian protesters as "enemies of our state," before vowing to "deal with them quickly," and harshly as in the past "with pleasure." The European Union, the United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka, 66, as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the "falsification" of the vote and the postelection crackdown.
www.rferl.org
