Police In Belarus Detain Nine Protesters, As Women Stage Regular Weekend Rally

MINSK — Police in Belarus have detained nine protesters as hundreds of women staged their regular weekend march in the capital to pressure the Belarusian government and Alyaksandr Lukashenka to step aside or call new elections.

Some of the demonstrators were draped in red-and-white opposition flags and others were holding red-and-white umbrellas as they marched through central Minsk for several hours despite the rainfall on October 24.

Belarus has been roiled by protests since the August 9 election that Lukashenka, who has been in power since 1994, was declared the winner of.

Opposition groups, and many Belarusians, say the results were fraudulent, and that activist Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya in fact was the legitimate winner. She fled Belarus for Lithuania shortly after the election amid threats to her and her family.

The United States and European Union have refused to recognize Lukashenka’s victory, and on October 12, the EU added Lukashenka to its sanctions list.

The rally in Minsk comes as Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on October 24 reiterated her country’s support for the Belarusian opposition movement, the day after meeting Tsikhanouskaya.

Democratic rights should never be taken for granted, since these “rights ensure we can take part in free elections and say what we think,” Frederiksen said on Facebook.

“The popular uprising of recent weeks in Belarus is a scary reminder that there is still a lot of work to do — also in Europe,” she added.

Frederiksen noted that Denmark supported EU sanctions against Lukashenka.

With reporting by dpa