KIEV, September 11./TASS/. Law enforcement officers are detaining participants in a protest rally on Independence Square in central Minsk, which has been a venue of protests for already over a month.
Several women with white-red-white flags were stopped there and escorted to a minibus. Officers asked the journalists covering the events to step aside. However, this has not prevented participants in the protest rally from launching a new action that looks like a procession of the Cross around a Roman-Catholic church, known as the Red Church, located on the square. Some protesters stand at the entrance to the church, carrying posters with an appeal to punish those responsible for crackdown on protesters. Police urge protesters to disperse.
The square saw thousands-strong protests within the first three weeks after the August 9 presidential election, but then the crowds thinned, with no more than several dozen people getting together there in the past few days. After protests subsided to a certain extent, police have been detaining protesters selectively, nabbing the most active ones.
Belarus held its presidential election on August 9. According to the Central Election Commission’s data, incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko won 80.10% of the vote, whereas Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who was considered to be his key rival, garnered 10.12% of the ballot. Subsequently, she refused to recognize the outcome of the polls. After the results of exit polls were announced late on August 9, mass protests flared up in downtown Minsk and other cities. In the early days they were accompanied by clashes between protesters and police. The authorities call for an end to illegal rallies, while the Coordination Council set up by the opposition demands more protests.