AFP and Reuters reported that about 2,000 women took part in the protest. At one point, the police blocked the march to the center of the capital, and then the protesters began to detain them en masse. Many of the protesters came dressed in white and red, the colors of the protest and also the colors of the flag of independent Belarus before joining the Soviet Union.
The marching into the center of the capital was greeted by motorists passing trumpets, and there were slogans demanding the release of political prisoners. “We will not forget, we will not forgive!” Or “Lukashenko behind bars!” Chanted the crowd.
“Some of the protesters (police officers) were blocked at the shopping center, other women scattered to the area. At one point, ‘We’re leaving!’ and a drone with a white-red-white flag took off in the sky. The cars with the detainees drove off, and the people who remained in place lined up in a human chain along the road. Several demonstrators felt bad, they called an ambulance for them, “the TASS agency wrote.
–
Protesters: The people have to decide for themselves what they want
“Pluralism of opinion is not allowed, only the opinion of a single person. I would like to live in a country where at least human rights are respected, where there is a division of power and where the people themselves decide where the country should go. I expect that they can arrest me at any time, but I’m not afraid, because I like my country and I try to do what I can for it, “one of the protesters, who came to the event in a carnival mask, told the Tut.by server.
At the market where the protest began, police checked the accreditations of journalists and later filmed protesters, but otherwise law enforcement did not initially prevent the march. The DPA recalled that a week ago police officers had used brutal violence against women for the first time and detained a hundred of them.
“At one point, two girls were attracting attention as they left the wagons to transport prisoners, the so-called Antons. They joked that there was no place in them, so they stayed free, “wrote the server Tut.by. “I wanted so much to see what Anton looked like from the inside,” said one of the girls, who masked her tears with a smile. “I voted for change and freedom. They stole changes and freedom from us, they beat the boys, the girls too, “she added, explaining why she goes to demonstrations.
Protests in Belarus erupted after the August 9 presidential election, the victory of which was announced by Lukashenko for the sixth time, this time with more than 80 percent of the vote. The main opposition candidate, Sviatlana Cichanouska, won only ten percent. The opposition considers these results to be falsified, and the European Union has refused to recognize them.
– .
