Belarus cracks down on opposition leaders with detentions

MINSK — Police in Belarus arrested protest and strike organisers on Monday as authorities cracked down on opposition leaders after the latest unprecedented demonstration against President Alexander Lukashenko's disputed reelection.

The detentions came as a top US diplomat met with opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in Lithuania and after tens of thousands took part in some of the largest protests in the country's recent history for a second Sunday in a row. 

Tikhanovskaya fled to neighbouring Lithuania after August 9 polls that she claims to have won against Lukashenko. His insistence on his own landslide victory and police violence against demonstrators have sparked huge protests against his rule.

The opposition said two members of its Coordination Council were detained on Monday: Sergei Dylevsky, a tractor plant worker who has come to prominence as a strike leader and Olga Kovalkova, a member of Tikhanovskaya's staff.

Allies of Tikhanovskaya formed the Coordination Council this month to oversee efforts for a peaceful transition of power.

Its members include Nobel Prize-winning author and outspoken Lukashenko critic Svetlana Alexievich and former arts minister Pavel Latushko.

"We are under pressure. This morning two members of the presidium of the Coordination Council were detained," another presidium member, Liliya Vlasova, said at a press conference.

Vlasova, a lawyer and mediator, said Dylevsky and Kovalkova were accused of illegally organising a strike, an administrative violation.

A mobile phone video by a witness posted by news site Tut.by apparently showed Dylevsky and Kovalkova being led to a police van, watched by uniformed workers from the Belarus tractor plant.

Call with Putin 

"We consider these actions of the authorities are absolutely unlawful," Vlasova said, adding: "We are negotiators."

Vlasova said that investigators had also summoned her for questioning.

In the industrial city of Soligorsk, police detained a strike leader at the Belaruskaly potash plant, Anatoly Bokun, and another, Alexander Lavrinovich, at the MZKT plant, which makes heavy-duty trucks, factory workers told AFP. 

The strike leaders were taken to police stations.

US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun met Tikhanovskaya in Lithuania, calling her a "very impressive person".

He condemned "the violation of human rights and brutality that we've seen play out in Belarus", saying Belarusians must "determine their own future".

Tikhanovskaya said Lukashenko "does not have the support either of the Belarusian people or the international community".

Visiting Ukraine, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also called for Lukashenko "not to resort to violence, to respect the rights of the protesters”. 

The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had spoken by phone with Lukashenko on Monday, the latest in a series of calls between the two leaders, whose countries are closely linked.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised protesters for lack of "provocations" and said law enforcement behaved "very appropriately" during Sunday's demonstration.

While police did not crack down at the time, the opposition warned that anyone who took part could potentially be detained.

'Belarus will not waver' 

Monday's detentions came after huge crowds of protesters held an unsanctioned march through the capital Minsk on Sunday, while Lukashenko mounted a bizarre display of force.

Footage released by his press service showed him landing at his residence in Minsk with his 15-year-old son Nikolai, both in bullet-proof vests and carrying semi-automatic rifles. He then praised riot police manning a heavily fortified barricade as "beautiful guys".

On Monday, the presidency and state news agency Belta used the footage in a montage set to stirring music, titled "Belarus will not waver". It featured scenes of heavily armed riot police and warnings that Lukashenko will impose "order".

Tikhanovskaya's campaign ally and Coordination Council member Maria Kolesnikova on Monday called for an official investigation into how Nikolai, a minor, was allowed to carry a combat weapon, and ridiculed Lukashenko.

"We think it's very strange when someone who heads a country allows himself to run about in very strange clothing, with a very strange weapon in the centre of Minsk," she said.

"If he thinks 80 per cent of Belarusians voted for him, why does he fearfully hide behind barbed wire and those chains of 'beautiful guys?’”