Police in Belarus are using tear gas to break up an anti-government “clapping” protest which was organised despite a government-enforced ban on social networking websites.
Up to 800 people gathered in a square in the capital of Minsk to show their opposition to President Alexander Lukashenko, but instead of holding up signs and placards or chanting and singing the activists clapped in unison.
The government, facing increasing public pressure because of a worsening financial crisis, had attempted to prevent the protest taking place by blocking access to Facebook, Twitter and VKontakte, a major Russian social networking website, on Saturday night.
An opposition group called “Revolution by Social Networks” has held a series of internet-organised rallies in about 30 cities and towns across the country, drawing thousands of protesters, all walking silently through the streets and clapping.
In Minsk only 20 young people began clapping outside the city’s railway station, but the crowd quickly began to swell as hundreds of others joined in.
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Scores of police and special forces who had lined the streets, moved in quickly, firing tear gas and detaining a number of activists, in chaotic scenes.
Rights group Vesna said among those detained was Stanislav Shushkevich, Belarus’ first post-Soviet leader. The 76-year-old, a physics and maths professor, held the country’s first free presidential election in 1994, but lost to Lukashenko and remains one of his biggest critics.
Shushkevich had held talks with American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit to the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. He had been stopped on a train on his return to Minsk overnight and warned by police not to take part in today’s event.
A spokesman for the Belarusian State Border Committee denied that Shushkevich had been arrested, saying it had only checked his documents as he crossed into the country.
Lukashenko had said that “an escalation of information intervention is under way” as part of plans drawn up to bring about a popular revolution.
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Speaking today at the opening of a military parade, to mark the anniversary of the end of Nazi occupation in 1944, he said: “We understand that the goal of these attacks is to sow uncertainty and alarm, to destroy social harmony, and in the end to bring us to our knees and bring to naught the achievements of our independence.”
Belarus is suffering its worst financial crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union. Russia has offered loans to the government, but only in exchange for greater control over the country’s economy. The European Union has threatened to increase sanctions imposed on Lukashenko following his crackdown on the opposition.
Russian state television, which broadcasts in Belarus, has supported the Belarusian protesters by showing their rough treatment at the hands of police.
Further protests are expected this evening, although the centre of Minsk has been blocked off by police and activists remain unable to communicate over the internet.