The United Nations has condemned the violent crackdown against demonstrators in Belarus, as the authorities reported hundreds more arrests after a fourth night of protests following the disputed re-election of President Lukashenko.
Protesters again rallied in Belarus’ capital and other cities on Wednesday, decrying the vote they say was rigged to extend the 26-year rule of the country”s authoritarian leader and the subsequent repression.
The Belarusian interior ministry said on Thursday that another 700 people had been detained the previous day, AFP reported. It brings the total number of arrests since Sunday’s vote to at least 6,700, with hundreds of injuries.
There are fears for the wellbeing of those held in custody, amid reports of abuses including beatings. Officials confirmed on Wednesday night that a second protester had died amid the unrest since Sunday’s vote.
On Wednesday the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet urged Belarusian authorities to immediately release all those unlawfully detained and investigate rights abuses.
The EU’s foreign policy chief has raised the possibility of imposing sanctions on those responsible for the repression.
The protesters contest the official election results, which show Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term with 80% of the vote, with the main opposition challenger receiving just 10%. Crowds have taken to the streets every night since to demand a recount.
Fears for fate of detainees
Even the official tally of detainees appears to downplay the scope of the crackdown. Anguished relatives have been besieging prisons across Belarus trying to find their missing relatives.
“Even those who were loyal saw the real face of this government during the past three days,” said 63-year-old Galina Vitushko, who stood outside a jail in Minsk, trying to find her son, a 43-year old doctor. She said that she desperately needs to give him insulin since he has diabetes.
“How can you treat your own people like that?” she asked, breaking into tears. “The real winners don’t behave like that.”
Second protester dies
A second protester has died after violent demonstrations that were sparked by Sunday’s disputed election result in Belarus, the country’s Investigative Committee said in a statement.
The 25-year-old man died in a hospital in Gomel, in the south-east, after being arrested on Sunday during an “unauthorised demonstration”, it added.
The statement did not specify the date of the protester’s death but said his health “suddenly deteriorated” while he was in detention.
The clashes have also left one person dead in Minsk and police said they opened fire with live ammunition in Brest, in the south-west near the border with Poland, leaving one injured.
Police brutality
In recent nights, authorities have responded with a level of brutality remarkable even during Lukashenko’s rule. Police have dispersed protesters with tear gas, stun grenades, water cannons and rubber bullets and severely beat them with truncheons.
Black-uniformed officers chased protesters into residential buildings and deliberately targeted journalists, beating many and breaking their cameras.
In several parts of Minsk on Wednesday night, groups of hundreds of people formed human chains. An AFP journalist witnessed one such chain in the north-east of the capital being broken up, with demonstrators beaten by police.
Elsewhere, motorists blared horns in support and, in some areas, slowed to a crawl to block police vehicles. On one avenue, people stood on balconies, clapping in an expression of support. Riot police fired rubber bullets at them.
Similar protests were held in at least five other cities, according to the Viasna human rights group.
Earlier in the day, groups of hundreds of women formed human chains in several districts of Minsk, chanting “Shame!” and calling for an end to the crackdown on the demonstrations. Hesitant to use force against all-women rallies, police dispersed them without violence.
Journalists targeted
Journalists, in particular, have been targeted. Boris Goretsky, vice president of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, said more than 20 reporters are currently in custody, waiting to see a judge, and several more have already been sentenced to jail terms ranging from 10 to 15 days.
“A deliberate hunt for journalists with independent Belarusian and foreign media has begun,” said Goretsky.
Reporters from several Belarusian and international outlets were beaten up Tuesday in Minsk. Officers seized memory cards from a group of photographers, including one for the AP.
On Wednesday, Vital Tsyhankou, a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was severely beaten by police and detained along with two reporters from an independent Belarusian TV station after covering a protest against police violence.
The Viasna rights group said many injured protesters were afraid to seek medical help, fearing prosecution for participating in the rallies.
Eduard Kukhterin, a 56-year-old publisher, was injured by rubber bullets overnight but decided not to go to a hospital. “Medical workers report such injuries to the law enforcement,” Kukhterin told the AP.
Lukashenko blames jobless
President Alexander Lukashenko has blamed criminals and unemployment for the mass protests that have swept the country, urging those taking part to “get a job”.
“The core of these so-called protesters are people with a criminal past and (those who are) currently unemployed,” Lukashenko said at a government meeting on Wednesday. “Those who don’t have a job, walk in the streets and avenues. That’s why I’m kindly urging everyone who is unemployed to get a job.”
The 65-year-old has led the former Soviet state of 9.5 million people since 1994, relentlessly stifling dissent and winning the nickname “Europe’s last dictator” in the West.
Belarus’ leading opposition candidate in the election said on Tuesday she had fled her country for Lithuania for her own wellbeing and for that of her children in the wake of the elections.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said she made the decision “absolutely independently” to leave adding the current situation in Belarus was “not worth any life,” referencing the violent protests.
In a video released on Tuesday, she urged her supporters to respect the law and to avoid clashes with police — but her campaign aides said she made the unexpected moves under duress.
The 37-year-old former teacher and political novice managed to unite fractured opposition groups and draw tens of thousands to her campaign rallies after two top potential challengers were barred from the race. She entered the race to replace her husband, an opposition blogger who aspired to run but has been in jail since his arrest in May.
Maria Kolesnikova, a top figure in Tsikhanouskaya’s campaign, urged the government on Wednesday to “stop waging a war against its own people and begin a dialogue.”
International condemnation
The crackdown has drawn harsh criticism from abroad.
Speaking during a trip to the Czech Republic on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Belarusian vote was neither free nor fair. “We want the people of Belarus to have the freedoms that they’re demanding,” he said.
The European Union foreign ministers scheduled a meeting on Friday to discuss the crackdown.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called the meeting a day after saying that the 27-nation bloc could impose sanctions against “those responsible for the observed violence, unjustified arrests, and falsification of election results.”
In 2016, the European Union lifted most of the sanctions it slapped on Belarus after Lukashenko freed political prisoners and allowed protests.