(ANSA-AFP) - MINSK, 14 SET - Riot police harshly detained
more than 400 demonstrators in Belarus on Sunday as tens of
thousands of people took to the streets, on the eve of crunch
talks between strongman Alexander Lukashenko and his main ally,
Russia's Vladimir Putin. More than 100,000 people are estimated
to have marched in Minsk on each of the past four weekends to
demand Lukashenko resign over a disputed August 9 presidential
election, which he claimed to have won by a landslide. AFP
journalists said a similar number took part in the latest
demonstration, with huge crowds flooding the streets despite an
intensifying police crackdown. Masked police officers in uniform
and plain clothes violently detained people who gathered for the
"March of Heroes" demonstration, pushing or punching them, video
posted on the Belarusian news site Tut.by showed. Police also
resorted to the use of a pump action shotgun, firing a "warning
shot" in the air during a scuffle, the interior ministry said.
Access to mobile internet was limited and central metro stations
closed, with authorities moving police vans, military vehicles
and barbed wire into the centre ahead of the protest.
(ANSA-AFP).
© Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved