Riot police arrested hundreds of protesters and destroyed their tent camp in central Minsk early yesterday, ending an act of unprecedented defiance against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
About 100 black-helmeted riot police arrived at October Square in the dead of night, and proceeded swiftly to carry or herd some 300 to 400 protesters into green trucks with barred windows. There was no violence or resistance.
Colonel Yury Podobed, who headed the operation, was quoted by Echo Moscow radio saying: "The revolution is over."
PHOTO: EPA
But top opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich accused the government of speaking "in the language of repression" and vowed to continue his fight to have Lukashenko's landslide re-election victory last Sunday annulled.
He said that a major rally planned for today would go ahead.
In Washington, the US State Department said it was "disturbed by the breakup of the demonstration and the detention of protesters."
The dramatic raid came on the fourth consecutive night that opposition activists -- mostly students -- peacefully occupied their tent camp on the vast, icy central square.
They had stood day and night in a protective human shield around their cluster of 35 tents, chanting slogans such as "Freedom!" and waving banners and flags, including that of the EU.
Only minutes before riot police arrived they were dancing to music and chanting: "Long live Belarus!"
The riot police disembarked at 3:07am from seven green trucks with barred windows and surrounded the tiny camp, a reporter at the scene said.
There was a palpable sense of fear and all noise stopped, except for occasional, weak cries of opposition slogans, such as: "Police are with the people!"
The demonstrators were then ordered to sit and riot police moved in, grabbing or simply guiding people to the backs of trucks. There was no violence visible.
By 3:20am it was all over.
The trucks sped away and all that remained of the protest camp -- the most brazen pro-democracy demonstration in Lukashenko's 12-year rule -- was a heap of broken tents, spilled food, dozens of Thermos flasks and clothing.
Among the wreckage were also all the banners that the protesters had been waving before the world's media most of that week.
"Freedom for us, freedom for you," read one. "Belarus in Europe!" read another.
Among those detained in the police raid was a stepson of Milinkevich. Also detained was a Polish diplomat and former ambassador to Minsk, Mariusz Maszkewicz, the Polish consulate and witnesses said.
"They are not giving any information. They won't let us see him. That's a violation of the Geneva Convention," Poland's consul, Krzysztof Swiderek, told reporters outside the prison where the demonstrators were being held.
The raid leaves Belarus' opposition in crisis. Already, more than 250 people had been arrested since Sunday, according to human rights organizations.
State television has been running hours of reports daily aimed at discrediting Milinkevich and the demonstrators as Western agents and social deviants.
Early news broadcasts yesterday showed footage of syringes, vodka bottles and pornography that the state channel claimed had been found in tents at the camp.
But Milinkevich, who according to official results won only 6.1 percent of Sunday's vote, compared with 83 percent for Lukashenko, remained defiant.
"We will continue with what we planned for [Saturday]," Milinkevich told reporters.
"These authorities can only speak one language, that of repression. They showed that again. I had been expecting this each night," Milinkevich said.
Fellow opposition leader and defeated presidential candidate, Alexander Kozulin, said: "The authorities' nerve didn't hold -- for them to have sent the police here at night when there were as few witnesses as possible."
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
RSS