Government crackdown on Belarusian protestors unlike anything that's come before, says journalist
Violence erupted this week during protests over the contested re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko
As protests over the contested re-election of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko continue, journalist Maryia Sadouskaya-Komlacha says that while a violent crackdown by government security forces was expected, the extent of their measures have been unprecedented.
Long dubbed Europe's last dictator, Lukashenko, who first became president in 1994, claimed a landslide victory over his chief opponent Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, with 80 per cent of the vote in the Aug. 9 election, but many across the country say it was rigged.
The fallout over the results was met with a fierce clampdown by security forces, with reports of police using live ammunition against protesters. Two people have died, and hundreds injured, during the protests.
On Thursday, the government apologized for the violence and released thousands of detained protestors Friday.
Germany's foreign minister announced on Friday that the European Union would impose new sanctions on Belarusian officials behind the crackdown. The opposition leader also spoke from exile in Lithuania, claiming victory in the election and calling for more peaceful rallies.
Sadouskaya-Komlacha spoke with Day 6 Brent Bambury about the protests and the government's response.
Here is part of that conversation.
Stories and videos and photos have been streaming out of Belarus and they have been painting a terrible picture. Did you ever think that things could get this bad in your country?
Absolutely. Violence at this election was one of the most predictable factors. The question was, how violent the actions of the police would be and whether the violence would be applied only towards some targeted groups of [the] population, or in a more [blanket] way. Unfortunately, in the last several days, we saw the latter.
On Thursday night, the government apologized for the heavy hand that they used in quelling the protests [and] they released many prisoners. How significant is it that they went on public television and made this announcement?
It is very significant, especially taking into account there is no public television in Belarus. It's all state owned, and it very rarely features any apologies to any people oppressed by [the] regime.
I think the government decided to apologize because already by the midweek, there were many state-owned factories and plants who were announcing that they would go on strike. And they demanded, among other things, to stop violence. So this is significant because it shows that this is the group of [the] population that the government fears most. They don't fear the intellectual students or artists, but they really fear the anger of the people who are working at the state-owned enterprises.
We heard that there were 7,000 detainees. Not all of those detainees have been released. Who did they hold on to?
Of course there were several people who were arrested well before the elections who were charged with different things: organizing a possible coup d'etat or extremism and other things like that. Several politicians are in jail for several months already. So of course, this apology didn't mean amnesty to all of them.
They mostly played on the card of the so-called accidental passersby, who happened to be in the place of the protests and maybe have been caught up by the police.
But we know that many of the protests were also peaceful. Were some of those peaceful protesters caught up in these detentions and how were they treated when they were in jail?
Actually, all of the protests that I know of were extremely peaceful. None of the shops' windows were broken. Nothing was stolen. No one was really hurt by the protests, except for accidentally, although the police claim there were some injuries.
People went into the streets extremely peacefully, and they were oppressed extremely cruelly. And on top of that, many people who were released from [the] detention centre described inhumane conditions, lack of water and food, beaten [beatings], humiliating torture.
Let's talk a little bit about the political situation as it is now because, as you know, the person who the protesters believe won last weekend's election has left the country, most likely under threat. But there is still defiance among the people who have been protesting. What worries you the most about the situation in Belarus right now?
The grievances that people have are not related to Svetlana Tikhanovskaya not winning the election. Actually, her husband, who was jailed — when he wanted to become a candidate — he, from the very start, said that he didn't actually expect any free and fair election.
He wanted to use this opportunity to meet with people and to stage a protest against the condition in which the country has been in the last year or so.
So what worries me is that people would not feel that they have been heard. The ones who were really outraged and went into the streets would stay home. And in this way, the protesters will become less numerous and easier to target, and then it will come back to [the] status quo.
Another thing that worries me equally is if this happens that some of the people may become radicalized and may stop believing that peaceful protest is the way to go.
A Belarusian Nobel laureate was calling on Lukashenko to step down because she feared that there would be civil war if Lukashenko didn't go. Do you think that those fears now are passed?
It very much depends on what would be the next step.
First of all, whether the people will be really happy with some government officials first splitting them up but then apologizing, and that's it. People didn't protest so much against police brutality, although of course it is the issue. They protested against the unfair vote count. So I think if these grievances are not addressed, then the tension in the society continues to be there, continues to grow and there is a possibility of indeed some stronger and longer conflict in the society.
Now that the government has apologized for their security overreach and tried to put the brakes on some of the unrest.
What do you think is going to happen in the next couple of days?
In the next couple of days, there will be many more accounts of people who experienced serious trauma while they were detained. And I think it's very important for us not to think that this situation has a closure just because they were released.
Written by Samraweet Yohannes. Interview produced by Pedro Sanchez. Q&A edited for length and clarity.
