Belarus: Ukraine raises the tone against Minsk

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4 min

Obviously, the situation in Belarus does not leave indifferent in the neighboring country, Ukraine, a country which has already experienced two revolutions and where the population expresses a lot of empathy for the fate of Belarusians. On the political side, President Volodymyr Zelensky somewhat raised his tone this Friday towards the authorities in Minsk, calling on them to end the violent arrests.

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With our correspondent in Kiev,  Stéphane Siohan

At the end of the presidential election last Sunday in Belarus, Volodymyr Zelensky had been very cautious, refusing to congratulate Alexander Lukashenko, as had done his Russian or Armenian counterparts, but without giving the impression of wanting to support the protest
in the street.

Change of tone this Friday: Zelensky calls on the Belarusian authorities
to stop the illegal arrests and to refrain from all violence.   

In the meantime, at least three Ukrainian nationals have been arrested in Minsk, in
particular two members of the Vostok SOS association, the main humanitarian NGO helping the civilians of Donbass.    

The Ukrainian head of state is also a little embarrassed, because he has also announced that the talks on Donbass will continue in Minsk, despite the uncertain political situation in Belarus.

And then it should be remembered that last year, newly elected, Zelensky had a little boast by asserting himself against Vladimir Poutine, as the champion of freedoms, in the Russian-speaking world.

Now tested by reality, it seems that the Ukrainian president has taken the side of another strategy: that of stability.

► To read also: Protest in Belarus: Moscow is monitoring the situation closely

♦ Tikhanoskaya open to dialogue

The opposition presidential candidate in Belarus, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya , a refugee in Lithuania, called on Friday for peaceful mass demonstrations across the country over the weekend to denounce the violent crackdown on the protest. Via her Telegram channel, the ex-candidate announced the creation of a coordination committee for the transfer of power and says she is ready for dialogue with the Lukashenkist authorities.

Violence and repression in detention camps

Since Sunday, protests against the re-election of the outgoing president have continued. Several tens of thousands of demonstrators took
to the streets this Friday in ranks swollen by
striking workers in several state factories. At least two people have died and more than 7,000 Belarusians have been arrested during nightly clashes between security forces and protesters.

Faced with the anger of the street, the authorities decided since Thursday evening to release hundreds of imprisoned demonstrators. Alexander Artemyev of Amnesty International reports to us testimonies of violence , even torture against the imprisoned demonstrators.

“  They were all beaten. Violently, with sadism. We were able to hear the testimony of a woman who had just been released from a detention center in Minsk. She recounts the permanent beatings inflicted on the men who were arrested. For the women, it was a campaign of humiliation and harassment. This woman says that with 21 other demonstrators, she was parked in a cell supposed to accommodate only 4 people. Sometimes in men, they crowded up to 50 in a cell. They couldn't even sleep on the floor. Some were even forced to sleep naked. We have identified multiple fractures of the ribs in the released detainees, head traumas, numerous bruises. All the testimonies overlap among those who have been released since yesterday. All these testimonies therefore lead us to denounce a state campaign of mass torture. "

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• Ukraine
• Volodymyr Zelensky
• Belarus

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