The Police in Belarus have arrested and subsequently detained more than 100 people, including five journalists, local media over plans to hold fresh rallies against President Alexander Lukashenko
Protests erupted in the former Soviet country last August after Lukashenko claimed a sixth presidential term in a vote that the opposition and Western diplomats said was rigged.
But the protests died down during the Belarusian winter in the wake of a violent crackdown that saw thousands of protesters detained, several killed and hundreds receive lengthy prison sentences for the unrest.
The opposition Telegram channel Nexta that mobilizes and coordinates protesters had called for a ‘second wave‘ of rallies to kick off on Saturday.
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The city square in Minsk, where the demonstration was called to start on Saturday afternoon, was surrounded by police vehicles and prison vans, and roads leading to it were closed.
No large-scale demonstrations took place at the site, though more than 100 people were detained during the course of the day, RIA cited a spokeswoman for the Belarus interior ministry as saying.
The Viasna human rights group said law enforcement officers had detained at least 110 people, including five journalists, across the country.
Among those detained were Galina Ulasik and Anna Kaltygina, editors at opposition news outlet TUT.by, said the organization, whose channel on the Telegram messenger app has more than 400,000 followers.
Another outlet, Nasha Niva, with 90,000 Telegram readers, said its editor-in-chief Yahor Martsinovich was also detained at the square, along with a photographer.
Almost all opposition leaders have either been arrested or forced to leave, notably Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania shortly after the August vote.
A group that represents the Polish minority in Belarus has also been singled out by police.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
