{"id":44014,"date":"2020-08-10T20:41:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T17:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/police-break-up-protests-after-belarus-presidential-vote\/"},"modified":"2020-08-10T20:41:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T17:41:00","slug":"police-break-up-protests-after-belarus-presidential-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/police-break-up-protests-after-belarus-presidential-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"#Police break up protests after Belarus presidential vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Police break up protests after Belarus presidential vote<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n MINSK, Belarus \u2014 Phalanxes of Belarusian police in full riot gear violently dispersed thousands of demonstrators who poured into the streets to challenge the early count from Sunday\u2019s presidential election indicating the longtime authoritarian leader won a sixth term by a landslide.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people were detained, according to a leading rights group.<\/p>\n

The brutal crackdown that began late Sunday and lasted through the night followed a tense campaign that saw massive rallies against President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation with an iron hand for 26 years.<\/p>\n

Election officials declared that early returns show 65-year-old Lukashenko winning with more than 80 percent of the vote while the main challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a former English teacher and political novice, had about 8 percent.<\/p>\n

Tsikhanouskaya rejected the official claims, saying \u201cI will believe my own eyes \u2014 the majority was for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thousands of her supporters quickly took to the streets of the capital to protest what they saw as official manipulations of the vote. They faced rows of riot police in black uniforms who moved quickly to disperse the demonstrators, firing flash-bang grenades and beating them with truncheons.<\/p>\n

After breaking up the big crowds, police relentlessly chased smaller groups of protesters across downtown Minsk for the next several hours.<\/p>\n

\"Demonstrators<\/img>
Demonstrators run away from police as they gather to protest against a result of the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk, Belarus.<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Several other cities across the country saw similar crackdowns on protesters.<\/p>\n

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova said that police efforts to restore order were continuing overnight, but wouldn\u2019t say how many people were detained.<\/p>\n

Ales Bilyatsky of the Viasna human rights group told The Associated Press several hundred were detained and hundreds injured in the police crackdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has happ<\/a>ened is awful,\u201d Tsikhanouskaya told reporters Sunday.<\/p>\n

An AP journalist was beaten by police and treated at a hospital.<\/p>\n

At Minsk\u2019 Hospital No. 10, an AP reporter saw a dozen ambulances delivering protesters with fragmentation wounds and cuts from stun grenades and other injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a peaceful protest, we weren\u2019t using force,\u201d said 23-year-old protester, Pavel Konoplyanik, who was accompanying his friend who had a plastic grenade fragment stuck in his neck. \u201cNo one will believe in the official results of the vote, they have stolen our victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Protesters<\/img>
Protesters shout \u201cGo away!\u201d as they gather after the Belarusian presidential election.<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Konoplyanik, whose legs were also cut by fragments of police grenades, said he doesn\u2019t want to leave the country but fears that he might have no other choice.<\/p>\n

Two prominent opposition challengers were denied places on the ballot, but Tsikhanouskaya, the wife of a jailed opposition blogger, managed to unite opposition groups and draw tens of thousands to her campaign rallies, tapping growing anger over a stagnant economy and fatigue with Lukashenko\u2019s autocratic rule.<\/p>\n

Lukashenko was defiant as he voted earlier in the day, warning that the opposition will meet a tough response.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you provoke, you will get the same answer,\u201d he said. \u201cDo you want to try to overthrow the government, break something, wound, offend and expect me or someone to kneel in front of you and kiss them and the sand onto which you wandered? This will not happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mindful of Belarus\u2019 long history of violent crackdowns on dissent \u2014 protesters were beaten after the 2010 election and six rival candidates arrested, three of whom were imprisoned for years \u2014 Tsikhanouskaya called for calm earlier Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that everything will be peaceful and that the police will not use force,\u201d she said after voting.<\/p>\n

After the polls closed, about 1,000 protesters gathered near the obelisk honoring Minsk as a World War II \u201chero city,\u201d where police harshly clashed with them, beating some with truncheons and later using flash-bang grenades to try to disperse them. Some of the protesters later tried to build barricades with trash containers, but police quickly broke them up.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/img>
A police officer detains a protester after the Belarusian presidential election.<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three journalists from the independent Russian TV station Dozhd were detained after interviewing an opposition figure and were deported.<\/p>\n

Tsikhanouskaya emerged as Lukashenko\u2019s main opponent after two other aspirants were denied places on the ballot. Viktor Babariko, head of a major Russia-owned bank, was jailed for charges he called political and Valery Tsepkalo, entrepreneur and former ambassador to the United States, fled to Russia with his children after warnings that he would be arrested and his children taken away.<\/p>\n

Tsepkalo\u2019s wife Veronika became a top member of Tsikhanouskaya\u2019s campaign, but she left the country too early Sunday, fearing for her safety, said campaign spokeswoman Anna Krasulina. Over the weekend, eight members of Tsikhanouskaya\u2019s campaign staff were arrested.<\/p>\n

Many voters were defiant in the face of Lukashenko\u2019s vow not to tolerate any protests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no more fear. Belarusians will not be silent and will protest loudly,\u201d 24-year-old Tatiana Protasevich said at a Minsk polling place.<\/p>\n

As polls opened, the country\u2019s central elections commission said more than 40 percent of the electorate had cast ballots in five days of early voting, a process the opposition saw as offering fertile ground for manipulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor five nights nobody has guarded the ballot boxes, which gives the authorities a wide field for maneuverings,\u201d Veronika Tsepkalo told AP before leaving Belarus.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/img>
Police block a road and use smoke grenades during a protest after the Belarusian presidential election.<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose assessments of elections are widely regarded as authoritative, was not invited to send observers.<\/p>\n

Tsikhanouskaya had crisscrossed the country, tapping into public frustration with a worsening economy and Lukashenko\u2019s swaggering response to the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Belarus, a country of 9.5 million people, has reported more than 68,500 coronavirus cases and 580 deaths but critics have accused authorities of manipulating the figures to downplay the death toll.<\/p>\n

Lukashenko has dismissed the virus as \u201cpsychosis\u201d and declined to apply measures to stop its spread, saying a lockdown would have doomed the already weak economy. He announced last month that he had been infected but had no symptoms and recovered quickly, allegedly thanks to playing sports.<\/p>\n

Yet for some voters, Lukashenko\u2019s long, hardline rule was a plus.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is an experienced politician, not a housewife who appeared out of nowhere and muddied the waters,\u201d retiree Igor Rozhov said Sunday. \u201cWe need a strong hand that will not allow riots.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

\n

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

“#Police break up protests after Belarus presidential vote” MINSK, Belarus \u2014 Phalanxes of Belarusian police in full riot gear violently dispersed thousands of demonstrators who poured into the streets to challenge the early count from Sunday\u2019s presidential election indicating the longtime authoritarian leader won a sixth term by a landslide. Hundreds of people were detained,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[51375],"class_list":["post-44014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-police-break-up-protests-after-belarus-presidential-vote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44014","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=44014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}