Kiev. Ukraine. Ukraine Gate – February 01, 2021 – International News
During the peaceful protests in Belarus, almost 170 of their participants were detained, the human rights center “Viasna” reported, UNN reports with reference to “Radio Svoboda”. Some of the detainees have already been released.
Human rights activists are currently listing the names of 167 detainees, mainly in the capital Minsk: two detainees in Hrodna and one in Novogrudok.
Other activists provide the names of 168 detainees in Minsk alone.
This was the 176th day of protests in Belarus.
Demonstrators changed tactics that day. In the previous few months, their actions took place mainly in the suburbs, relatively few and at the same time in different places as “yard marches”.
Today in Minsk, in addition to these traditional “court marches” with white-red-white flags, several thousand demonstrators also went for a “walk” in the city center. At the same time, the participants of this “walk” were without political slogans and national symbols, so as not to give the police formal reasons for detention – but it did not help.
Among those detained that day was Swiss journalist Lucia Chirki, who has proper accreditation to work in Belarus; a few hours later she was released after diplomatic intervention by the Swiss Foreign Ministry.
Also on January 31, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Belarus announced that it would propose increasing the responsibility for “extremist activities”, which in fact include all protests against the current government, as well as for any “assistance” to such activities – which, in particular, will be considered the use of “extremist symbols.”
Meanwhile, on January 29, the country’s Prosecutor General’s Office reported that it had received a “collective appeal” from about a hundred citizens asking the agency to recognize the white-red-white national flag of Belarus, which is now the main symbol of anti-government protesters, as extremist. According to a spokeswoman for the agency, they are now preparing a package of documents recognizing this flag and other Belarusian national symbols as “extremist” – which will turn these symbols into officially banned and their use into a criminal offense.
Currently, these symbols, which are widely used by demonstrators, are only “unregistered”, and their use is prosecuted as administrative law.
Protests in Belarus erupted on the day of the presidential election on August 9, 2020, when the first results announced by the authorities were announced. Since then, these protests have continued almost daily, with the largest usually taking place on weekends. Both in Belarus and around the world, it is widely believed that the official election results were rigged.
The protesters are demanding the resignation of Alexander Lukashenko, who calls himself the re-elected president of Belarus, the holding of new fair presidential elections, and the release of all political prisoners, and the prosecution of those responsible for the beatings and torture of detained protesters.
According to human rights activists, about 33,000 people have been detained and arrested during the protests in Belarus. Hundreds of people reported torture and ill-treatment by security forces. Several people died as a result of the brutal actions of security forces during the dispersal of protests.
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