Epress.am News from Armenia
In the biggest challenge to
authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko in 16 years in power, thousands of
demonstrators massed outside the main government office to protest alleged vote
fraud in Sunday’s presidential election, but club-swinging riot police drove
them off and beat many, AP reports.
The violent night left in
doubt the next step for Belarus,
which is of interest to the Kremlin because of its position as a buffer between
Russia
and the West. The West, for its part, has been offended by Lukashenko’s harsh
rule and his resistance to change.
Three of the candidates who
ran against Lukashenko were arrested and the top opposition leader, Vladimir
Neklyayev, was forcefully taken from the hospital by unknown men in civilian
clothes, activists said.
Neklyayev’s aide said seven
men wrapped Neklyayev in a blanket on his hospital bed and carried him outside
as his wife screamed, locked in a neighboring room. His whereabouts are
currently unknown. Neklyayev and two other candidates were severely beaten in
clashes with government forces.
The demonstration and its
violent end all happened even before preliminary results were announced. But
opposition supporters were convinced that Lukashenko would fake the tally. In previous
elections, none of which were judged free and fair by Western observers,
Lukashenko tallied 80 percent or more.
This year’s election had
given tantalizing hints that the repressive political climate might be changing
in the ex-Soviet state. Not only were nine candidates allowed to challenge
Lukashenko, they were even given unprecedented access to state broadcast media
to conduct debates.
But if Lukashenko had been
looking, or trying to look, like he was flirting with democracy, the romance
was clearly over within three hours of the polls closing.
The crowd that gathered in
central Minsk,
estimated by the opposition at tens of thousands, was significantly larger than
protesters who massed after the 2006 elections. But those protests were allowed
to go on sporadically for a week; Sunday’s didn’t make it until midnight.
As riot police beat on
their shields to drive the crowd away from the government offices, the defiant
crowd matched the rhythmic blows with the chant “We will come back.” However,
it was unclear how long such bravado could last in the face of harsh
crackdowns.
“Repression and
arrested have stopped the wave of protests,” said candidate Yaroslav
Romanchuk. “Street democracy is over.”
But anger remains high.
“We had a peaceful
protest and it is the authorities who used force,” said Marat Titovets, a
40-year-old engineer. “After Lukashenko spilled blood, he cannot remain in
power.”
Protesters broke windows
and glass doors of the government building, which also houses the Central
Election Commission, but they were repelled by riot police waiting inside. Hundreds
more riot police and Interior Ministry troops then arrived in trucks and sent
most of the demonstrators fleeing. Some tried to hide in the courtyards of nearby
apartment buildings, but were bludgeoned by troops waiting inside the
courtyards.
Neklyayev was beaten by
riot police while leading a few hundred of his supporters to the demonstration
and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, according to his wife. His left eye
was bruised, his nose was bleeding and he was nauseous and unable to speak,
Olga Neklyayeva told the Associated Press.
Another opposition
candidate, Vitaly Rymashevsky, was beaten in clashes with riot police by the
government building. He claimed that the people who attempted to storm the
building were police acting as demonstrators and that he was attacked when he
tried to stop them.
After the polls closed,
thousands of opposition activists converged as planned on October Square, but
most of the square had been flooded to make an ice skating rink and pop music
boomed from loudspeakers.
The protesters then set off
along the main avenue toward Independence
Square, where the main government building is
located.
The demonstrators shouted
“leave” to Lukashenko, who has led Belarus
since 1994 in a heavy-handed regime that is often characterized as the last
dictatorship in Europe.
“Belarusians have
shown that they want freedom and cannot tolerate the current regime,”
opposition leader Yaroslav Romanchuk said.
Photos by Reuters