×
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Harass, arrest, exile: How Belarus silences dissent

Last Updated 08 September 2020, 15:41 IST

Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko has responded to the biggest challenge in his 26-year rule with the blunt tools of repression.

As an opposition movement has united against him, his agents have harassed, forcibly exiled and imprisoned its leaders. Maria Kolesnikova, one of the last central figures still at liberty in the country, was detained on Tuesday at the border with Ukraine.

Here is the state of play with the most prominent opposition figures.

The trouble began for Lukashenko in May at the start of campaigning for a presidential election scheduled for August 9.

Elections are usually a cakewalk for the former Soviet farm director, but this time several opposition candidates began to gain popular support.

Among them were video-blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, who became popular by exposing corruption, and former banker Viktor Babaryko.

They seemed destined to pass the threshold of 100,000 signatures needed to get on the ballot.

However, on May 29 two police officers approached Tikhanovsky and one fell over. The YouTuber was arrested and charged with violent conduct.

On June 18, agents arrested Babaryko and accused him of heading an "organised group" that carried out financial crime.

The two men have been in prison since.

"Our society is not ready to vote for a woman," boasted Lukashenko when Svetlana Tikhanovskaya announced that she would stand in place of her arrested husband, Tikhanovsky.

The electoral authorities allowed the former stay-at-home mother to stand and she formed a coalition with two other women: Kolesnikova, who had managed Babaryko's campaign, and Veronika Tsepkalo whose husband was forced into exile after also trying to stand against Lukashenko.

Their meetings galvanised the opposition and brought together tens of thousands.

Lukashenko's regime began to crack down during the final days of the campaign, arresting a dozen of their collaborators. Tsepkalo fled into exile.

After the tumultuous campaign, Lukashenko claimed to have won the election with 80 per cent of the vote, prompting mass demonstrations and violent repression.

Late on August 10, Tikhanovskaya disappeared after being held at the headquarters of the electoral commission, reappearing the next day in Lithuania.

State news agency Belta broadcast a video of Tikhanovskaya telling her supporters in a monotone voice not to take to the streets.

Her supporters said she was under duress and forced to flee abroad.

Several others followed. Olga Kovalkova, a 36-year-old lawyer, said she was arrested, threatened by the KGB intelligence agency and then set free at the Polish border. Pavel Latushko, a former culture minister who had been in the opposition, took refuge in Poland.

Tikhanovskaya has founded a Coordination Council from exile to keep the pressure on Lukashenko, who in turn has threatened to "chill some hotheads" in the movement.

The crackdown has seen security agents questioning leaders of the council including Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich.

Some opposition leaders have since been sentenced to short prison terms and others including Kovalkova and Latushko forced out of the country.

Only two of the seven members of the Coordination Council's central body -- known as the praesidium -- remain free in Belarus: Alexievich and Maxim Znak, a 39-year-old lawyer.

Nevertheless, tens of thousands continue to join regular protests against the government.

ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 08 September 2020, 15:41 IST)

Follow us on

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT