Over 100,000 People Protested In Minsk, There Will Be A National Strike
More than 100,000 people demonstrated in Minsk on Sunday for the resignation of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. The opposition today gave him an ultimatum to the resignation and release of all political prisoners, otherwise a nationwide strike will begin on Monday. Lukashenko ignored the ultimatum. In Minsk, security forces used tear gas against the protesters and detained more than 100 people.
Over 100,000 People Protested In Minsk, There Will Be A National Strike
"Tomorrow, October 26, a nationwide strike will begin," Interfax quoted opposition leader Sviatlana Cichanouska in the evening. It was she who gave Lukashenko this ultimatum less than two weeks ago. "Today at 23:59 (21:59 CET - note from ČTK) the ultimatum of our people given to the president will expire. If they do not meet our demands, the Belarusians will launch a national strike," Cichanouská said earlier.
"The regime has once again shown the Belarusians that strength is the only thing it is capable of," said Cichanouska, who lives in exile in Lithuania and ran for Lukashenko instead of her imprisoned husband in the August elections.
According to the human rights organization Vesna-96, the police detained 112 people during the demonstrations today, but released some of them, the Interfax agency reported in the evening. Dozens of people were also detained in the city of Lida in the west of the country, where police used tear gas against the protesters, according to Reuters.
Hundreds of police and soldiers closed the center of the Belarusian capital today before the demonstration. Authorities have closed more than a dozen subway stations and turned off high-speed mobile internet to complicate people's arrangements for the protests. Even so, crowds today marched through Minsk with historic red and white flags and chanted "Demisi", "Strike".
Lukashenko has ruled Belarus for 26 years, and this August the Central Electoral Commission declared him the winner of the presidential election. The opposition, the European Union, the United States and other countries consider the results to be manipulated.
Protests in Belarus have been going on for two and a half months, despite numerous arrests and often brutal crackdown by protesters on protesters. Most people take to the streets to protest Lukashenko on Sunday.