MINSK: The main challenger in Belarus’s disputed presidential election called for mass weekend rallies and factory workers walked off the job on Friday as defiance mounted against strongman Alexander Lukashenko.

In a video address to supporters, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya appealed for an end to a police crackdown on post-election protests, as people detained during the demonstrations began to emerge from jail with harrowing accounts of beatings and torture.

Crowds of workers heeded calls from the opposition to down tools and journalists saw hundreds of employees gathered in uniforms and hard hats outside the Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ) and the Minsk Tractor Works (MTZ).

The workers at the tractor factory — which Lukashenko has held up as a national symbol — marched through the streets of the capital chanting “Leave” and “Long live Belarus!”

European Union ministers agreed to draw up a list of targets in Belarus for a new round of sanctions in response to the post-election crackdown.

EU ministers agree to impose sanctions on those responsible for the repression

“The foreign ministers agreed to impose sanctions on those responsible for the repression and a list of names will be drawn up,” one European official said.

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde said in a tweet that the “EU will now initiate a process of sanctions against those responsible for the violence, arrests and fraud in connection with the election.”

Once the list is finalised, each individual or entity on it will have to be approved unanimously by member states, but officials said none of the 27 raised objections to the idea of sanctions.

Ahead of the meeting there had been calls for action from several EU members, especially Belarus’ neighbours Poland and Lithuania, which is now hosting Tikhanovskaya.

“Belarusians will never want to live with the previous government again. The majority do not believe in his victory,” said Tikhanovskaya, who left the country for Lithuania on Tuesday.

“I ask the mayors of all cities to organise peaceful mass gatherings in every city on August 15 and 16,” she said.

In a statement published later, she announced the creation of a Coordination Council to ensure a transfer of power, asking foreign governments to “help us in organising a dialogue with Belarusian authorities”.

She demanded the authorities release all detainees, remove security forces from the streets and open criminal cases against those who ordered the police crackdown.

Tikhanovskaya and her supporters dispute Lukashenko’s claim to have won Sunday’s election with 80 per cent of the vote and thousands have taken to the streets of Minsk and other cities over the past six days.

Police have used rubber bullets, stun grenades and, in at least one case, live rounds to disperse the crowds, with hundreds injured.

Officials have confirmed two deaths in the unrest, including one man who died during a demonstration in Minsk and another who died in custody after being arrested in the southeastern city of Gomel.

Opposition supporters are expected to gather on Saturday for the funeral of the man who died in Minsk and for a “March for Freedom” in the capital on Sunday.

At least 6,700 people have been arrested since the start of the protests, but in a surprise move on Thursday officials announced they would start releasing detainees. The interior ministry said on Friday that more than 2,000 had so far been set free.

‘Electric shocks’

Detainees emerging from a detention centre in Minsk said they had been beaten and deprived of food, water, sleep, and medical care.

Mikhail Chernenkov, a 43-year-old entrepreneur, said he was given electric shocks and beaten with sticks in a police station, showing his bruised buttocks.

“This is torture,” he said, adding that like many others he was forced to sleep outside because cells were overcrowded. He also said he did not take part in the protests.

In a statement, Amnesty International condemned “a campaign of widespread torture and other ill-treatment by the Belarusian authorities who are intent on crushing peaceful protests by any means”.

Belarus’s Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said in a call with his Swiss counterpart that Minsk was ready for “constructive and objective dialogue with foreign partners” on the election and its aftermath.

In a dramatic show of defiance on Thursday, thousands of people formed human chains and marched in Minsk, many wearing white and holding flowers and balloons, to protest against police brutality.

Similar human chains formed in half a dozen other cities.

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron grip since 1994, has dismissed the demonstrators as foreign-controlled “sheep” and “people with a criminal past who are now unemployed”.

In a televised meeting with construction industry representatives, he rejected claims that he had fled the country and said strikes would threaten jobs.

“I am alive and not abroad,” he said, before saying bosses should tell employees they risked hurting companies if they walked off the job.

The protest movement arose in support of Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old political novice who ran for president after potential opposition candidates including her husband were jailed.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2020