MINSK – Belarusian riot police detained scores of demonstrators at a protest rally against President Alexander Lukashenko in the centre of the capital, Minsk, last night.
A reporter at the scene in the city centre said Belarusian special forces had rounded up dozens of people and put them into police buses.
Rallies against Mr Lukashenko’s rule are rare in the tightly policed former Soviet republic. But protest calls on social networking sites have multiplied in recent weeks as a severe currency crisis has brought economic hardship.
Police sealed off entry to the city’s October Square near the main presidential headquarters, as they did a week ago.
When up to 1,000 people gathered on the main thoroughfare, Independence Prospect, squads of special forces moved in and hustled people into police buses.
Responding to an opposition internet call, dozens of cars had joined the protest, driving slowly down the main thoroughfare and sounding their horns.
Otherwise demonstrators gathered peacefully, simply applauding in a co-ordinated act of protest.
The Belarus rights organisation Vesna-96 said that about 100 people had been detained in other parts of the country for staging protests. Interior ministry officials were not reachable for comment.
Belarus has been struggling for months to pull out of a currency crisis – largely fuelled by President Lukashenko’s populist economic policies – which has led to a 36 per cent devaluation against the dollar.
Mr Lukashenko, in power since 1994, signalled last Friday that he wanted an end to street rallies and said he would sack his interior minister if they did not end. Minsk is receiving several millions dollars of credit from a Russian-led bailout, but is also seeking up to $8 billion of aid from the International Monetary Fund. – (Reuters)