Tens of thousands of people marched Sunday September 27 for the seventh consecutive weekend in Belarus to demand the departure of President Alexander Lukashenko.
Alexander Lukashenko has been facing a historic protest since the presidential election of August 9, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets every Sunday in Minsk to denounce his re-election, which was deemed fraudulent, despite police repression.
Some 100,000 people marched in the rain in Minsk, according to AFP journalists there, including well-known athletes, a number comparable to previous weeks.
The Interior Ministry said it had arrested around 200 people.
According to the NGO Viasna, the police used tear gas in Gomel, the second largest city in the country, and stun grenades in Mogilev (east).
The Interior Ministry denied this last point.
"We elected our president," protester Eleonora Naumova told AFP, holding up a portrait of opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
“We don't want to live in a concentration camp,” added the 48-year-old designer.
In central Minsk, armored vehicles were deployed and several metro stations were closed.
The Independence Palace, where Alexander Lukashenko sits and to which massive gatherings have converged lately, was bristling with barriers and heavily guarded by riot police.
Several central squares and shopping centers where protesters have taken refuge in the past have also been closed.
"We are millions"
"If any impostor can be crowned here, then why not me?" Quips Sergei Mikhailov, 36, wearing a cardboard crown distributed in a fast-food chain.
"We are millions," said the rival of Alexander Lukashenko, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, in a message posted Sunday on social networks to support the demonstrators on the "50th day of our demonstrations".
"We are going to win," she said, recalling the "peaceful" nature of the movement.
As of Saturday, the authorities made some 150 arrests, mainly of women gathered to protest against the regime, as well as of journalists.
A refugee in Lithuania, opponent Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, 38, claims victory in the August ballot, after an election campaign in which this newbie in politics galvanized the crowds.
The rallies come after Alexander Lukashenko was sworn in for a sixth term on Wednesday, sparking further protests the same day.
The ceremony at the presidential palace had not been announced and took place on the sly.
With AFP
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