Belarus: journalists quit state news channels, security forces publicly destroy their uniforms. Video
The fourth day of protests in Belarus brought several new mass demonstrations, in addition to security forces dispersing people on the streets using batons, rubber bullets and tear gas.
Thousands of people in Minsk and many other cities of Belarus say that the elections were falsified and demand the results be annulled as they chant “Get out!” to the man who was re-elected as president, Alexander Lukashenko.
◾ A growing number of manufacturing plants are joining the nationwide strike. Among them are such large ones as the Minsk Tractor Plant and Belshina.
◾ Five anchors have already resigned from the Belarusian state television in protest against the brutal crackdown on demonstrations.
◾ Special forces and Interior Ministry officers organized a demonstration and began to publicly throw out their uniforms as a sign that they disagree with the actions of the security forces.
◾ People are chaining themselves together in protest and solidarity with those detained the day before. Many women are dressed in white, the campaign color of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was Lukashenko’s main rival in the elections.
The protesters see her as the winner of the election. Tsikhanouskaya is now in Lithuania because she fears for her safety.
◾ About 5,000 people were detained. There were about 500 wounded who sought medical help. Two were killed: one from being hit by a rubber bullet, the other became ill while being arrested.
◾ People who are released from prisons have reported numerous incidents of beatings, torture and bullying. Euroradio edited a short version of a two-hour audio recording of how the special forces conducted themselves in a police van, into which several dozens of detained people were shoved.
One of them was able to hide their phone and recorded everything that happened to them. Humiliation, obscenities, blows, threats – police officers are drunk on power, and do not consider the detainees people.
◾ The leaders of several EU countries have called for an urgent summit to discuss sanctions against Lukashenko’s regime. The US State Department announced the possibility of imposing sanctions and stopping oil supplies.
◾ At a meeting with security ministers, Lukashenko called the protesters “unemployed with a criminal past.”
