Opposition Candidate Tsikhanouskaya Leaves Belarus Amid Protests

8/11/20
MINSK -- Belarusian opposition presidential candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has left Belarus and is in Lithuania, the Baltic country's foreign minister, Linas Linkevicius, announced on Twitter on August 11 amid protests across Belarus over a presidential election that the opposition says was rigged. Appearing visually shaken in a video released on August 1 by the tut.by news website, Tsikhanouskaya said that she'd made the decision to leave Belarus on her own. It was not immediately clear whether the video had been made in Belarus on August 10 or after she'd arrived in Lithuania. But an ally of Tsikhanouskaya, Maryya Kalesnikava, said on August 11 that the video statement was made under duress after Tsikhanouskaya had been held without a lawyer for three hours by "high-ranking law enforcement" officers when she tried to file a formal complaint about the official election results at the headquarters of the Central Election Commission in Minsk. "Svyatlana was there without contact with us," Kalesnikava said. "The recent video is the result of these three hours." "I made a very difficult decision," she said. "That decision I made by myself. Neither friends, relatives, the campaign team, nor Syarhey (Tsikhanouskaya's husband) could affect it in any way. I know that many will understand me, many will judge me, and many will hate me. But, you know, God forbid, [you have to] face the dilemma I had to face."

RFE/RL’s correspondents reported from the southeastern city of Homel that at least 500 people were detained overnight when riot police moved in and violently dispersed a crowd of demonstrators. One young woman who was detained in Homel told RFE/RL that she witnessed severe beatings of other detainees by police who were holding them in custody. Meanwhile, opponents of Lukashenka have called for a nationwide strike beginning at noon on August 11. In Lithuania, Foreign Minister Linkevicius tweeted early on August 11 that: "Svetlana #Tikhanovskaya is safe. She is in #Lithuania." "She arrived in Lithuania and is safe," Linkevicius later told AFP, without providing further details. But Tsikhanouskaya's spokesperson Volha Kavalkova said on August 11 that Belarusian authorities had taken Tsikhanouskaya out of the country. "Svyatlana had no choice," Kavalkova said. "It is important that she is free and alive. She left along with her campaign chief Maryya Maroz. But part of Svyatlana’s team continues to be held hostage here” in Belarus.

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Common Sense 1 said:

Probably a good thing she left when she did. If not she might have gone missing!
Missing in Belarus is not a good thing! Especially when complaining about fraud by the government.

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Rogue Valley said:

Believe it or not, Belarus still calls its security service the KGB.

That said, Minsk is the cleanest large city I've ever seen.

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Common Sense 1 said:

From the old Soviet Union days?

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