Three days that shocked Belarus. The most important events since the election day
The whole Belarus has experienced unprecedented three-day problems with the Internet, which, as we all hope, ended on the morning of Wednesday, August 12. A significant part of the people of Belarus still remains in the dark about what exactly happened in these three days, the country is full of various rumors. We decided to collect all the most important events of the last days in one material.
August 9
At polling stations in the capital, regions and abroad-at embassies and consulates of Belarus there was an unprecedented excitement: people stood in literally kilometer-long queues for several hours to vote.
Some polling stations reported that there were not enough ballots, and the turnout, according to the independent observers, taking into account the data on early voting, exceeds 100%. At some polling stations in Minsk, people did not have time to vote before they closed at 8 pm: in some places, riot police dispersed people, who were gathering, and in others, the work of the commissions was extended. Natalia Kochanova, the speaker of the Council of the Republic, visited one of the polling station.
By the end of the election day, mobile Internet began to disappear and around 10 pm Belarus was almost isolated from the global network. There were difficulties in the work of messengers, as well as websites of the country’s leading media: TUT.BY, Onliner, “Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus”, “Nasha Niva”, “Naviny” and others. Due to the lack of Internet, it was almost impossible to call a taxi, even over the phone.
State TV channels broadcast preliminary results of exit polls — a survey of voters at the exit from the polling stations. They spoke about Lukashenko’s convincing victory.
People did not leave the polling stations, waiting for the results to be announced. Some of the Commissions of the polling stations recorded a victory of Tikhanovskaya, often by a large margin. Later, dozens of photos of protocols confirming this appeared on the Internet. This information was met by the audience with cheers and words of gratitude to the commissions.
The main event of the day was protest actions in all regions of Belarus. By the evening, armored vehicles began to assemble in Minsk. There were military patrols on the roads leading to the city. Security forces blocked central streets, ground public transport did not work in some areas, and some of the subway stations were closed.
August 10
The CEC announced the preliminary results of the vote only the next day: Lukashenko got 80.23%, Tsikhanouskaya — 9.9%.
The European Union condemned the actions of the Belarusian authorities, while Russia and China congratulated Lukashenko on his victory.
Information about striking workers at some enterprises started circulating that day. There were reports that one or several workshops of Byelorussian Steel Works in Zhlobin stopped their work, but the director of the enterprise denied all strike reports.
The protests that happened on Monday night were comparable to those of the day before. The city center of the capital was closed as on the previous day, six metro stations didn’t work. People gathered on Nemiga street again, but the main events took place in the area of Pushkinskaya metro station and Riga supermarket. The story repeated itself: thousands of people, blocked roads, barricades, brutal detentions, flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets, and water cannons. Drivers blocked the roadway with their cars not allowing armored vehicles to pass. The next day, the Investigative Committee warned such drivers that it would subduct their cars as crime instruments.
A protester died at Pushkinskaya that evening. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, an improvised explosive device went off in his hand as he was trying to throw it at OMON (Belarussian riot police). However, there were eyewitnesses who refute this version.
The Ministry of Health reported that over 200 people were taken to hospitals with injuries during two days of protest, several of them needed surgeries.
People protested in Grodno, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Novopolotsk, Baranovichi, Molodechno, Novogrudok, and Zhodino. In Brest and Gomel, there were serious clashes between protesters and OMON.
There were problems with the Internet connection all day. This affected the work of many services, institutions, IT-companies, and brought multimillion-dollar losses to the country. The founder of Telegram Pavel Durov said that the company used anti-censorship tools specifically for the situation in Belarus.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that another 2 thousand people were arrested and 21 representatives of law enforcement agencies were injured.
August 11
The day started with the announcement that Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is in Lithuania, information was confirmed by the head of Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As it turned out, she left Belarus at night, after spending several hours in the CEC building on Monday. It is still unclear who she talked to there and what exactly has been discussed, but in the afternoon a recorded message appeared on the Internet. In the video, Sviatlana read from a prepared text calling on Belarusians to stop street protests and to respect the law. Maria Kolesnikova, the only one from the “trio” left in Belarus, said that Tikhanovskaya has been forced to record this message.
There have been reports of protest moods among workers of the Minsk Electrotechnical Plant named after V. I. Kozlov, “Integral” and “Belenergosbyt” — people again started talking about strikes.
The protests on Tuesday were not so numerous, but the law enforcers showed more violence this time, not only against civilians, but against journalists as well: TUT.BY correspondent Stanislav Korshunov was detained in Brest, while in Minsk, OMON confiscated memory cards with the footage from photographers and ripped off their accreditation badges. In Minsk, at 1 am, most of the protesters were either disbanded or detained. They were caught in the yards and stairwells, where they hid from the police, chasing them and kicking down the doors at the entrances. There were reports that law enforcers fired rubber bullets at the windows, aiming at the witnesses who were shaming them for violence.
This morning, the Interior Ministry reported that last day more than a thousand people were detained. According to the Ministry of Health, 51 people applied for medical assistance, 14 of them were policemen and internal troops.
The results of three days of protests in figures — more than 6 thousand detainees, more than 250 injured and one dead.
This is a translation of the article previously published on TUT.BY on the 12th of August, 2020.
