Belarus | Week 11 of protests (19–25 October)

Week before the ultimatum deadline

26 October 2020 | BYHelp-Mediagroup
Source: Voice of Belarus. Cover photo: Deutsche Welle, TUT.BY, Deutsche Welle

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Week 11 of protests was marked by the nervousness of the authorities before the deadline of the “people’s ultimatum” put forward by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

Conditions of the ultimatum:

  • cessation of violence and investigation of all atrocities by the security forces,
  • release of all political prisoners,
  • resignation of Alexander Lukashenko.

In case of non-fulfillment, Sviatlana called on the Belarusians to start a nationwide strike on 26 October.

Meanwhile, peaceful protests have become even more massive: marches of pensioners and people with disabilities, student protests. Against this background, the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation Sergei Naryshkin arrived in Belarus, who, apparently, brought a message from the Kremlin.

The authorities decided to organize their own mega-meeting on Sunday, 25 October, for which they began to collect state employees from all over Belarus, but people massively refused to participate and the meeting was canceled.

At the same time, on Sunday, a record-breaking for the last month
demonstration gathered on the streets of Minsk, numbering according to various estimates up to 250 thousand participants. A huge column passed through the entire city, but at the end of the rally the security forces began dispersing the demonstrators using stun grenades and rubber bullets. Many began to suspect that the provocateurs had deliberately led the column of people into a prepared trap. The most terrible explosions took place practically under the windows of the intensive care unit of a specialized maternity hospital where premature babies and mothers with heart pathologies are located.

The security forces grabbed and beat the protesters in the courtyards, broke into the apartments where local residents were hiding them, and everything happened on the direct orders of the dictator himself.

There were only a few hours left before the expiration of the people’s ultimatum.

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