BBC: Dozens Arrested at Mass Protests in Minsk

Police in Belarus have arrested at least 100 people in the capital Minsk and other towns as protests against President Alexander Lukashenko were held for the fourth weekend in a row, BBC reports. 

"Protesters want the long-time president to resign after his re-election last month amid allegations of ballot-rigging. Mass unrest since then has seen at least four people killed and hundreds injured as the government tries to stamp out dissent," the article reads, adding that a number of opposition figures have fled the country amid threats of imprisonment.

President Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has accused Western nations of interfering.

"Protesters, human rights activists and observers say riot police are brutally suppressing peaceful marches in the former Soviet republic. Belarus borders Russia, on which it depends heavily for energy and with which it historically has close ties, as well as Ukraine and EU states," reads the publication. 

Alexander Lukashenko won the 2020 election in Belarus with a reported 80.23% of the vote, which was met with widespread protests throughout the country and violent repression by the Belarusian authorities. Protests in Belarus have been ongoing since the August 9 presidential election. Protesters say massive vote-rigging has taken place and the winner is not Alexander Lukashenko but the opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. Hundreds of people were injured in clashes with police during the protests, and 4 protesters were killed.

By Ana Dumbadze 

Source: BBC

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