Repression in Belarus: Alexander Lukashenko’s regime arrested more than 1,100 protesters in March

Over 1,100 Belarusian opponents arrested in March for participating in protests against Alexandr Lukashenko’s regime, the Viasná Human Rights Center reported on Sunday.

“In the past month, we recorded 1,139 arrests for political reasons, including 841 in Minsk “the non-governmental organization said in a statement.

According to human rights defenders, in terms of the number of arrests, Minsk – the country’s capital – was followed by the Brest region, where 76 people were arrested.

On March 25, Belarusian Freedom Day alone, 175 people were arrested in the capital and 75 others in the rest of the country. Two days later, another 250 people were arrested.

According to Vesná, 36 journalists were also arrested.

“Throughout the month, the authorities continued to actively use criminal prosecutions against citizens for political reasons. According to the Belarusian Prosecutor’s Office, 631 people with criminal cases have been brought to court and more than 400 demonstrators have already been convicted, ”the Center added.

In total, there are 325 political prisoners in the country, said Viasná, and “the number of these continues to increase”.

Belarus is going through a deep political crisis after the presidential elections last August, declared fraudulent by the opposition and the West, and the massive demonstrations demanding the withdrawal of Lukashenko from power.

Belarusian authorities violently cracked down on the protests and imprisoned or forced the main leaders of the opposition movement to emigrate.

Lukashenko, who ruled the country for more than a quarter of a century and is considered the last dictator in Europe, launched a process of constitutional reform to quell anti-government protests.

As part of the systematic persecution of the opposition, last Friday the Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB) inscribed the exiled opposition leader on the national terrorist list, Svetlana Tijanóvskaya, and the former Minister of Culture Pavel Latushko, exiled in Poland.

At the end of March, the general prosecutor’s office opened criminal proceedings against Tijanóvskaya for allegedly preparing terrorist acts during the anti-government protests that erupted after the presidential elections.

In addition to the adversaries, The authorities also accuse the members of the BYPOL initiative, which groups together former members of the country’s security forces who rebelled against Lukashenko, of preparing “terrorist” acts.

A total of 17 people are on the terrorist list and have already been declared in international search and capture, the KGB statement said. The note specifies that The corresponding documents have already been prepared to request the extradition of Tijanóvskaya to Lithuania and that of Latushko to Poland.

In turn, the authorities plan to publish a “list of traitors”, which will be made up of people who “have fled the country and are trying from outside to fight the Belarusians” in response to the “list of executioners” established by the opposition.

Tijanóvskaya, who has devoted himself since leaving Minsk in August last year to garnering international support for his cause, demands new elections, the release of all political prisoners and an investigation into the crackdown on peaceful protests .

In recent statements to the EFE agency, Latushko criticized the European Union (EU) for continuing to do business with Belarus and refusing to impose new sanctions against the last European dictatorship.

Latushko, a former simultaneous ambassador to France and Spain, counts “tens of thousands” of Belarusian reprisals for political reasons – more than 35,000 detained since August, according to the Interior -; nine to Belarusians killed during demonstrations; 1,800 who denounced torture and 200 businesses closed for joining the strikes.

The Belarusian opposition tried, in vain, to resume mass demonstrations against Lukashenko on March 25 on the occasion of Freedom Day, the anniversary of the proclamation in 1918 of the People’s Republic of Belarus, a day during which several Hundreds of Belarusian authorities have sentenced more than 400 people for participating in anti-government protests since August 2020, according to the prosecution.

With information from EFE

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