Hundreds of demonstrators shivered and cheered through the freezing pre-dawn yesterday in the capital of Belarus, trying to keep up momentum in an arduous and unlikely drive to overturn elections that gave a new term to the authoritarian who over the past 12 years has turned Belarus into a state denounced as Europe's last dictatorship.
Europe's main elections-monitoring organization and Western governments denounced the election of Alexander Lukashenko in terms ranging from seriously flawed to blatantly fraudulent. Lukashenko, who despises the West, asserted on Monday that his foes had failed to topple him in a foreign-backed "revolution."
The protests began on Sunday evening as the polls closed, attracting some 10,000 people in a demonstration that was extraordinary both for its size and for the non-interference of police who usually act fast and harshly to break up unauthorized gatherings.
PHOTO: EPA
After several elated hours, the demonstrators went home and leaders called on them to come to Oktyrabrskaya Square again on Monday evening. They did -- but only at about half-strength. That fell to a few hundred by midnight.
The number was minuscule compared with the crowds of 100,000 or more that jammed the center of the Ukrainian capital for weeks in December 2004 and that forced a rerun of a flawed presidential election. But the Belarusian opposition were trying to mimic the techniques that worked in their southern neighbor.
Protesters set up a dozen tents and locked arms in a human chain guarding the tiny encampment. Others tried to bring in blankets, food and hot beverages that help them endure a round-the-clock in below-freezing temperatures, but were often detained by police.
Olena Savina, a 21-year-old journalism student was bringing bread, sausages and rugs to sleep on to the square when police took her away for about an hour and warned her she would have problems at school.
"I believe that the repression will not stop us. I believe that there will be more and more of us," she said when she returned, minus her supplies.
That is what happened in Ukraine and in the 2003 "Rose Revolution" in Georgia, as more and more came to protests when they saw police were not interfering. The opposite phenomenon in Belarus may reflect fears that authorities are simply playing a high-tension waiting game before launching a truncheon-swinging dispersal.
The protesters broke into periodic cheers throughout the night, but the cold was clearly enervating them despite stirring words from their leaders.
"The people want to stay until victory, and I'm with them," said Alexander Milinkevich, the main opposition candidate who has branded Lukashenko an "illegal, illegitimate president" and called for a new vote.
International observers said the vote fell short of democratic standards; Europe's main human rights organization said it was a "farce" and the US called for a new election.
However, the leverage of the international community seemed limited and the diminished size of the crowd suggested the opposition was losing momentum.
"There aren't enough people" a young man hollered into a cell phone amid the din of the rally on Monday night. Others vowed to hold out to the bitter end.
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