{"id":319815,"date":"2021-08-09T23:24:36","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T20:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/belarus-leader-denies-repression-a-year-after-disputed-vote\/"},"modified":"2021-08-09T23:24:36","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T20:24:36","slug":"belarus-leader-denies-repression-a-year-after-disputed-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/belarus-leader-denies-repression-a-year-after-disputed-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"#Belarus leader denies repression a year after disputed vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Belarus leader denies repression a year after disputed vote<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

KYIV, Ukraine \u2014 Belarus\u2019 authoritarian leader on Monday denied that his government unleashed massive repression of dissent after his re-election a year ago triggered a monthslong wave of mass protests, even as his law enforcement officials admitted receiving over 5,000 complaints about beating and torture.<\/p>\n

President Alexander Lukashenko\u2019s remarks came during an epic eight-hour press conference on the anniversary of the vote that handed him a sixth term but was denounced by the opposition and the West as rigged.<\/p>\n

The event, during which Lukashenko lashed out at Western journalists while some Belarusian reporters and bloggers emotionally defended his government\u2019s actions, came as Belarus faces growing pressure from the West over its treatment of government critics.<\/p>\n

Lukashenko asserted that the election was carried out in \u201ctotal transparency\u201d and that the opposition \u201cwho called for bashing the authorities (were preparing) for a coup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belarus was shaken by the protests, the largest of which drew up to 200,000 people. Authorities responded with a crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police. Leading opposition figures have been jailed or forced to leave the country.<\/p>\n

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 27 years, has denounced his opponents as foreign stooges and accused the U.S. and its allies of plotting to overthrow his government.<\/p>\n

He has vaguely promised to step down after Belarus adopts a new constitution but kept quiet about when it might happ<\/a>en. On Monday, Lukashenko said it would happen \u201cvery soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Belarusian
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, background center, speaks during an annual press conference in Minsk, Belarus, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The authorities have ramped up their crackdown in recent months, targeting independent journalists and democracy activists with raids and arrests and sometimes going to extremes such as\u00a0diverting a plane to the capital of Minsk and arresting a dissident aboard.<\/a><\/p>\n

Lukashenko on Monday denied repression in Belarus, adding: \u201cTo unleash repressions in Belarus is (the same as) to shoot myself. I know it well and I will never cross that line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several hours later, however, pressed by foreign journalists about numerous reports of beatings and torture of peaceful demonstrators, the president acknowledged that some may have \u201cgotten it\u201d from law enforcement but only because they broke the law and \u201ccame to the barricades with knives and blades.\u201d<\/p>\n

The head of Belarus\u2019 Investigative Committee, Dmitry Gora, told the press conference that law enforcement received more than 5,000 complaints about beating and torture, but Lukashenko dismissed them as not based on facts and aimed at \u201cconfusing\u201d the police.<\/p>\n

The pressure on dissent has elicited international outrage, and the U.S. and European Union have slapped Belarus with sanctions that target top government officials and key sectors of the country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

\"Belarusian
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during an annual press conference in Minsk, Belarus, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In response, Lukashenko has said his country will not try to stem a flow of illegal migrants to the EU. Lithuania in recent months has faced a surge of mostly Iraqi migrants it has blamed on Lukashenko\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the president also threatened to stop cooperating with the U.S. in the fight against smuggling of radioactive materials if the sanctions pressure continues. \u201cWho needs some dirty explosives going to the European Union?\u201d Lukashenko said, citing the surge of migrants as an example of Western pressure backfiring. \u201cWe\u2019re not blackmailing, we\u2019re not threatening, we\u2019re forced to react,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last week, Belarus once again drew international attention. At the Tokyo Game<\/a>s, a Belarusian Olympic sprinter\u00a0accused the country\u2019s officials of trying to put her on a plane back to Belarus<\/a>\u00a0after she publicly criticized the management of her team. Krystsina Tsimanouskaya refused to board the plane and sought refuge in Poland.<\/p>\n

In his first comment on the incident, Lukashenko accused her of being a foreign stooge, saying that \u201cshe wouldn\u2019t have done it herself if she hadn\u2019t been manipulated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around the same time, a\u00a0Belarusian activist who ran a group in Ukraine helping Belarusians fleeing persecution was found hanged in Kyiv<\/a>, with his allies alleging that Belarus\u2019 authorities were behind his death.<\/p>\n

Lukashenko brushed off the accusations and demanded Ukraine to investigate Vitaly Shishov\u2019s death. \u201cIt needs to be figured out. But if you\u2019ve accused us, (put) facts on the table. Facts on the table!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Belarusian
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during an annual press conference in Minsk, Belarus, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenko\u2019s top challenger in last year\u2019s election who left Belarus under government pressure and is now in exile in Lithuania, said Monday that \u201cthe regime\u201d in Minsk had turned into a \u201cterrorist one\u201d and urged Western nations to impose more sanctions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect that the U.S., Britain and Canada will announce coordinated sanctions against the regime shortly,\u201d she said during a joint briefing with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielus Landsbergis, adding that her team is working on \u201cbringing closer an international tribunal over the regime\u2019s crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Landsbergis said the international community should not recognize any international agreements signed by \u201cillegal president\u201d Lukashenko.<\/p>\n

The U.K. on Monday\u00a0announced tightening economic sanctions against Belarus.<\/a>\u00a0The measures target trade with Belarusian state-owned companies, government finance and aviation, including a ban on British firms providing technical assistance to Lukashenko\u2019s fleet of luxury aircraft.<\/p>\n

Other Western officials marked the anniversary of the election with messages of support for the people of Belarus.<\/p>\n

European Council President Charles Michel tweeted that the EU \u201cstands firmly\u201d with Belarus and \u201cwill continue to do so.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Belarus leader denies repression a year after disputed vote” KYIV, Ukraine \u2014 Belarus\u2019 authoritarian leader on Monday denied that his government unleashed massive repression of dissent after his re-election a year ago triggered a monthslong wave of mass protests, even as his law enforcement officials admitted receiving over 5,000 complaints about beating and torture. President…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":319816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/Vote-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[113761,74257,71126,1621],"class_list":["post-319815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-8-9-21","tag-belarus","tag-politicians","tag-protests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}