From the DW:
“Belarus election: Opposition
leader Tikhanovskaya made 'difficult decision to leave'”
Belarusian opposition leader
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has said she had taken a "very difficult
decision" to leave the country, after disputing an election she claimed
was rigged. Ms Tikhanovskaya said she did it for her children, and "not
one life" was worth what was going on in the country. She was
"safe" now in Lithuania, the country's foreign minister said. Poll
results gave President Alexander Lukashenko 80% of the vote, but there have
been numerous claims of fraud. Violent clashes between police and protesters
over the two nights since the election was held have left at least one person
dead, and there have been numerous reports of police brutality. Mr Lukashenko,
in power since 1994, has described opposition supporters as "sheep"
controlled from abroad.
What did Ms Tikhanovskaya say? In an emotional video address to supporters
(in Russian) recorded before her departure for Lithuania and posted on YouTube,
Ms Tikhanovskaya said she had over-estimated her own strength. "I thought
that this campaign had really steeled me and given me so much strength that I
could cope with anything," she said. "But I guess I'm still the same
weak woman that I was." She said her decision to leave was taken
"completely independently" and not influenced by anyone around her,
even though many people would "condemn" or "hate" her for
it. "No one life is worth what is happening," she added.
"Children are the most important things in our lives." Earlier
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius tweeted about Ms Tikhanovskaya's
whereabouts after rumours that she had disappeared. There had been concern for
her on Monday but her campaign later said she was "safe", without
saying where. Mr Linkevicius told Lithuanian radio Ms Tikhanovskaya had been
detained for seven hours in Belarus but did not say why or by whom. An
associate of the opposition leader said she had been escorted from the country
by the authorities as part of a deal to allow the release of her campaign
manager, Maria Moroz, who was arrested before the election on Friday evening.
The two women left the country together.
Who is Svetlana Tikhanovskaya? The election campaign saw the rise of Ms
Tikhanovskaya, 37, a former teacher who was a stay-at-home mother until she was
thrust into the political spotlight. After her husband was arrested and blocked
from registering for the vote, she stepped in to take his place. President
Lukashenko has dismissed Ms Tikhanovskaya as a "poor little girl",
manipulated by foreign "puppet masters". After the vote took place,
her campaign said the results, which gave her just 9.9% of the vote, "did
not correspond to reality" and vowed to challenge "numerous
falsifications". Ms Tikhanovskaya told reporters that she had in fact won
the election, and called on the authorities to relinquish power peacefully.
Protests began as soon as polls closed and continued for a second night on
Monday. However, Mr Lukashenko said he would respond robustly to the protests
and not allow the country to be torn apart.
A symbol of change, not a leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya went missing after
lodging an official complaint about the election result. She was quoted as
saying "I've made my decision" but nobody could confirm her
whereabouts for many hours. Now the foreign minister of neighbouring Lithuania
says she is there - and safe. How that happened is not clear yet. On Monday,
the KGB security service in Belarus claimed it foiled a plot to assassinate the
opposition candidate - and make her a "sacrificial lamb", for
protesters. At a news conference in Minsk, she seemed nervous, slightly unsure;
the same day she told the BBC she was scared. The fact Svetlana Tikhanovskaya
has fled, though, will not affect the unprecedented mass protests that have
rocked Belarus for a second night - crowds clashing with riot police. They are
organised through social media - mainly Telegram - not by her campaign team and
the candidate had not joined them in person. She only ran for president after
her activist husband was arrested - and for voters, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has
always been a symbol of change, a route to that, rather than a leader.
What happened in Monday's
protests? Riot police fired rubber
bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to disperse thousands of demonstrators rallying
in the capital. Polish-based broadcaster Belsat TV aired footage of the police
charging into the crowds. Reports say some of the demonstrators fought back,
throwing petrol bombs. Protesters also tried to build barricades. Officials say
one demonstrator died when an explosive device went off in his hands - the
first confirmed fatality since the clashes began. A number of people were
arrested. One journalist was injured, her colleagues and eyewitnesses said. The
BBC's Abdujalil Abdurasulov in Minsk says protesters were put in police vans,
and the sound of beatings could be heard as the officers entered, and the
people inside cried for help. The scale of the protests and the violence used
to disperse the crowds is unprecedented, he says, and protesters are struggling
to learn the whereabouts of missing friends and relatives. Protests were also
being held in other Belarusian cities. The internet, which was
"significantly disrupted" on election day, continued to be mostly
unavailable for a second day, according to online monitor NetBlocks.
What's the context? President Lukashenko, 65, was first elected
in 1994. In the last vote in 2015, he was declared winner with 83.5% of the
vote. There were no serious challengers and election observers reported
problems in the counting and tabulation of votes. Anger towards Mr Lukashenko's
government this time has been in part fuelled by its response to coronavirus. The
president has downplayed the outbreak, advising citizens to drink vodka and use
saunas to fight the disease. Belarus, which has a population of 9.5 million,
has reported nearly 70,000 cases and almost 600 deaths.
^ I kinda feel that she abandoned
her supporters way too quickly when she fled the country. I can understand her
sending her children to safety outside of Belarus, but she should have stayed.
She wanted change for Belarus and even though she didn’t officially win (I
think the Election was rigged from the start) she still should have stayed in
the country and tried something else. ^
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