Belarus: more than a month of mobilization against Lukashenko every weekend

Woman demonstrating and facing law enforcement in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, on Saturday, September 19, 2020. Tut.By via REUTERS

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It has been a month and a half since the mobilization against President Alexander Lukashenko began in Belarus.

Alexander Lukashenko, in power for 26 years, was re-elected on August 9 in a ballot described as "rigged" by the opposition.

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Since August 9, an unprecedented movement to demand his departure has affected Minsk and other major cities of the former Soviet republic.

A new demonstration is being held this Sunday in the capital, several tens of thousands of people are still expected.

Mobilization follows the same pattern every weekend.

On Saturdays, it is largely women who demonstrate against police violence.

Sundays are the days of mass mobilizations to demand the departure of President Lukashenko.

Last Sunday, no less than 100,000 people demonstrated in Minsk alone.

The movement is growing and spreading, at the local level, despite the repression.

Every weekend is marked by numerous arrests by riot police or police officers in plain clothes.

Just yesterday Saturday, the demonstration of about 2,000 women was brutally dispersed,

, sometimes carried by police in vans.

A familiar face, Nina Baguinskaya, a 73-year-old activist, was quickly released.

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In a month and a half, more than 10,000 people have been " 

 ", according to the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Belarus.

Several opposition figures are part of it, some have been imprisoned, others forced into exile, especially in Poland and Lithuania.

Moreover, Belarus has promised this week to close its borders with its two neighbors.

President Alexander Lukashenko categorically refuses to bow.

He enlisted the help of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who pledged security support in Minsk if needed and pledged Belarus a loan of $ 1.5 billion.

Opposition leader

due to meet EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday September 21.

European sanctions are planned against Belarusian personalities found responsible for electoral fraud and police repression against demonstrators.

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• Belarus

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