Belarusian Police Cracks Down on Hand-clapping Protestors
Police Crackdown
Belarusian regime cracked down on protestors on Sunday after President Aleksandr Lukashenko said, while presiding the Independence Day of the country, that a plot is being organized against his rule by obscure forces in the service of the “capital of other countries.”
He alluded to the fact that the governments in Ukraine and Georgia were installed with the support of Western countries, and exhorted the people to fight against the “colored revolutions” blueprinted in the capitals of other countries.
Lukashenko added that the goal of these revolutions was to lead these nations into the new world order, which would leave them without national wealth and sovereignty.
Belarusian Independence Day
He accused the agents of this new world order of wishing to bring the nations to their knees, and reassured the population that this would never happen to Belarus.
During his speech people began clapping their hands, which triggered the brutal response of the police forces, who intervened with tear gas, and made many arrests, according to the journalists present.
The conflict was resumed later in the day outside Minsk’s main train station, and the police made arrests again, and used tear gas.
Situation in Belarus became more and more volatile as the economic crisis advanced, and Belarus’s currency was devaluated, and the price of food and other basics were rationalized.
In order to prevent the unrest from spreading, the regime has decided to crack down on protestors, which drove the people to invent on Facebook social networks a new form of protest: clapping hands simultaneously in stead of shouting slogans or engaging in fight with the riot police.
Belarusian leader has attempted to play the two-end game of making friends with Russia and Western countries at the same time by pretending to be courting each in turns, but his game was over at the end of last year, when le was reelected in an election intensely criticized by the people.
Since then, almost all leaders of the opposition have been arrested, which made many European politicians consider Lukashenko “the last dictator in Europe.”11
