Police fire water cannons at Minsk demonstrators
October 4, 2020
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Minsk on Sunday, marching to a detention center and demanding that Belarusian authorities release all political prisoners.
Pictures and videos posted on social media showed huge crowds with people beating drums and waving the opposition's white and red flags.
Mobile internet had been turned off to prevent protesters from organizing routes through the city and that subway stations were closed to prevent access to the city center.
Read more: Belarus protests: Prisoners accuse police of torture, detail 'beatings'
Several people were arrested shortly after the march began and police used water cannons mounted on armored vehicles to disperse groups of demonstrators.
Despite police resistance, a group of demonstrators reached the walls of the notorious Okrestina detention center, chanting "let them out" and holding pictures of prisoners.
Detained protesters and political opponents of strongman Alexander Lukashenko are believed to be held in the detention center.
The Belarusian rights group Viasna said more than 100 demonstrators were detained Sunday during demonstrations in Minsk and elsewhere in Belarus.
The Belarusian journalists' association said at least three media representatives were taken into custody by police. Belarus withdrew the accreditation of all foreign reporters on Friday.
More than 70 'political prisoners'
According to the Belarusian rights group Viasna, there are 77 "political prisoners" currently detained in Belarus.
Notable opposition figures behind bars include blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, who was not allowed to run for president, and opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova, who destroyed her passport during an attempted forced deportation to Ukraine.
Kalesnikava faces up to five years in jail on charges of endangering national security.
"These are people who have suffered for their convictions, and are still suffering," Lukashenko's election opponent, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, said in a statement ahead of the protest Sunday. "Our task is to set them free."
After the election, Tsikhanouskaya, and other opposition members, fled to Lithuania fearing arrest in Belarus.
Belarusian authorities have opened more than 250 criminal cases against Lukashenko's would-be rivals, activists, bloggers and ordinary Belarusians, according to the top opposition Telegram channel, Nexta Live.
Read more: Belarus opposition leader threatened with deportation 'alive or in bits'
8th week in a row of protests
Opposition protests on Sunday have become a regular occurrence since Lukashenko was reelected on August 9 in what the European Union has called a rigged election.
Last week, around 100,000 people demonstrated in Minsk and 350 people were arrested.
On Friday, the European Union imposed sanctions targeting some 40 senior officials in Belarus who are accused of falsifying presidential election results and being behind the violent crackdown on peaceful protesters in the aftermath of the election.
wmr/sms (AFP, Reuters, dpa)