Belarus: one year after his election, Alexander Lukashenko denies any repression

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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday denied in a television interview any repression in the country. As the day marks the first anniversary of his re-election, protest rallies have been organized abroad.

“There is not and there will never be repression in my country (…). Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko denied any repression on Monday August 9, despite arrests and forced exile thousands of his opponents a year after his re-election.

During a televised meeting with the press and dignitaries of the regime, dubbed “big discussion”, the Belarusian president judged, in very disjointed remarks, that the year had “not been easy” and accused once of plus his opponents for wanting to foment a “coup”.

Then, when asked about the mass arrests, the forced closures of media or NGOs, Alexander Lukashenko rejected the term repression.

“There is not and there will never be repression in my country (…) I do not need it”, he even said. “What repression? I shot someone? Did I kill someone?” He asked the audience after a question from an American journalist.

“I just played by the rules of the game of bandits (the opponents, editor’s note), who, under the direction of the American special services, from Poland, attacked our sovereign state,” added the Belarusian leader.

“We will never get down on our knees ! “

Alexander Loukachenko has also denied any involvement in the suspicious death of Vitali Chychov, an opponent who took refuge in Ukraine.

He also attacked sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, accusing her of having been “remotely guided” by Warsaw after she claimed to have been the victim of an attempted forcible repatriation from the Tokyo Olympics.

“Chychov, but who is it for me or for Belarus? (…) is it nobody for us, who would have gone to hang him?”, He launched.

Alexander Lukashenko has never ceased to describe his detractors as henchmen of the West, which, according to him, wants to overthrow his regime in order to be able to attack Moscow and Vladimir Poutine. “We will never get down on our knees!” He said.

Events abroad

In Minsk, a leaden scree fell on the critics of power. By dint of repression, there are no more demonstrations, whereas they gathered tens of thousands of people less than a year ago.

The 2020 electoral campaign had indeed seen an unexpected mobilization of crowds of Belarusians around a surprise candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa, who had replaced at short notice her imprisoned husband, then united all the currents of the opposition behind her, the power having excluded all other rivals of the Belarusian president.

But at the end of the August 9 ballot, Alexander Lukashenko proclaimed himself the winner with more than 80% of the votes. This result had triggered a protest movement of historic proportions in this former Soviet republic, led with an iron fist by its authoritarian president since 1994.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was forced into exile, becoming the representative of her family abroad. It is received by all Western leaders, especially last July by the American Joe Biden. On Monday, she said the Belarusian regime had become “terrorist”.

To mark this first anniversary of the anti-Lukashenko protest, gatherings of Belarusians are therefore taking place abroad, in Poland and Ukraine, where many dissidents have taken refuge.

In 2021, as the European Union and the United States increased the sanctions against the regime, the repression extended to the media and NGOs. Minsk is also accused of hijacking a commercial flight in May to arrest an opponent, causing major airlines to bypass its airspace.

EU diplomacy denounced, on Sunday, “the well-orchestrated repression and campaign of intimidation” of the regime which has led “thousands of citizens from all walks of life to die in obscure circumstances, to be detained or forced to leave the country and live in exile “.

The power in place in Minsk has never sought dialogue with its detractors.

With AFP

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