MINSK: Opposition protesters in Belarus rallied Sunday in the latest of nearly four months of demonstrations against the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko. Social media videos showed small groups of protesters gathered in courtyards as others marched through the capital Minsk with the opposition red and white flags.
In contrast to mass Sunday protests that have taken place since the August vote, the opposition has for weeks sought to foil a toughening crackdown by staging numerous smaller protests. An AFP journalist saw police dispersing groups of even 10 to 15 people and witnessed three arrests.
"I cannot understand how we could stop when people have suffered and continue to suffer. We cannot close our eyes to this," Svetlana Onufrienko, a 31-year-old lawyer, told AFP. Minsk police said that around 300 people were taken into police custody during the protests in Minsk.
Water cannon were stationed in the city centre and authorities limited connections to networks such as the Telegram messaging app, which protesters use to coordinate. Belarus has been gripped by massive protests since August after Lukashenko, 66, won a sixth term as president of the former Soviet republic.
The opposition says the election was rigged and political novice Svetlana Tikhanovskaya -- who ran against Lukashenko in the place of her jailed husband -- was the true winner of the vote. "Each march is a reminder that Belarusians will not surrender. We will not allow our rights to be taken away and turn a blind eye to crimes," Tikhanovskaya, 38, wrote on her Telegram channel from exile.
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