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Posted By admin on September 23, 2020

100,000 march in Minsk for week 7 of Belarus protests

KYIV, Ukraine Tens of thousands of Belarusians calling for the authoritarian president to resign march through the capital as the countrys wave of protests enters its seventh week.

Hundreds of soldiers block off the center of Minsk, deploying water cannons and armored personnel carriers and erecting barbed wire barriers. Protests also take place in several other cities, including Brest and Grodno.

The crowd in Minsk includes about 100,000 people, says Ales Bialiatski, head of the Viasna human rights organization. He says dozens of demonstrators were arrested in Minsk and Grodno.

Protests began August 9 after an election that official results say gave President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office; opponents and some poll workers say the results were manipulated.

Lukashenko, who has repressed opposition and independent news media during 26 years in power, has rejected suggestions of dialogue with the protesters. Many members of the Coordination Council that was formed by the opposition to push for a transition of power have been arrested or have fled the country.

The Minsk demonstrators carry the red-and-white flags that were independent Belarus national standard before being replaced in 1995, early in Lukashenkos tenure. Some bear placards depicting Lukashenko as a mustachioed cockroach.

Although protests have taken place daily since the election, the Sunday gatherings in Minsk have been by far the largest, attracting crowds of as many as 200,000 people.

Every Sunday, you are showing yourselves and the world that the Belarusian people are the power, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was Lukashenkos main election opponent, says in a video message from Lithuania, where she is in exile.

AP

Protesters with old Belarusian national flags march during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, September 20, 2020. (AP Photo/TUT.by)

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