WARSAW: (CNS): Amid violent street clashes following a contested August 9 presidential election, the Belarusian Bishops’ Conference called for dialogue and restraint in Belarus,
“The two sides clearly have to talk if this dangerous situation isn’t to deteriorate,” Father Yuri Sanko, conference spokesperson, said on August 10.
“Although it isn’t for us to specify what’s needed to defuse the tension, we’ll keep on appealing for every spoken word to be considered carefully to avoid making matters worse,” he said.
The nation’s official election commission declared the incumbent president, Alexander Lukashenko, the victor on August 9 with more than 80 per cent of votes against his nearest rival, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old former teacher, who was said to have won 9.9 per cent.
However, the results of the ballot, from which international monitors were barred, were rejected by Tikhanovskaya’s supporters as rigged, sparking nationwide protests.
Lukashenko has been in power for 26 years and was last elected in 2015 also amid claims of ballot-rigging, with 83.5 per cent of the vote.
The independent Belsat TV, based in neighbouring Poland, said armed police, backed by troops and tanks, had used tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse demonstrators on August 10 in the capital, Minsk.
The BBC reported that beatings and cries of help could be heard as protesters were arrested and thrown in police vans amid unprecedented violence by security forces. The Belarusian government confirmed a protester had died in clashes.
August 11 saw a third night of post-election protests after Tsikhanouskaya left for Lithuania amid a widening government crackdown on the opposition.
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported that she left the country shortly a private conversation with Belarusian security officials while she was presenting an official complaint to the Central Election Commission about alleged falsification of the August 9 presidential election
Lithuania’s foreign minister, Linas Linkevicius, confirmed on August 11 that Tikhanovskaya had taken refuge in his country after being detained for seven hours.
Internet connections with the Catholic Church’s four dioceses and bishops’ conference secretariat remained unavailable on August 11, in what the online monitor NetBlocks described as a “significant disruption.”
RFE/RL’s Belarus Service reported that authorities were enforcing a de facto curfew, detaining people walking on the streets, stopping cars and detaining some drivers, and limiting public transportation. Police wielding shields and batons also attacked people, journalists, and cars honking horns.
Father Sanko said he had no information about harm to Catholics or damage to Church property, adding that Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Minsk-Mohilev, had urged people to pray the rosary for peace.
At Rakov on August 9, the archbishop urged Catholics to recite the rosary “for a peaceful settlement of problems,” recalling that a similar appeal had helped avoid civil war in the Philippines in the 1990s.
“In reality, conditions are far from peaceful, and it’s hard to imagine the protests easing while the whole city centre is closed off, preventing people from returning home,” Father Sanko lamented.
RFE/RL reported that lay Catholics had appealed to the Belarus electoral commission on August 9 for a “just and honest counting of votes” and launched an Internet campaign titled, Falsification: a grave sin.
Father Sanko described the appeal as a “private initiative by young people.”
He said, “They are state citizens and have a right to explore the Church’s social teaching and make judgments for the benefit of fellow citizens.”
Father Sanko said, “For now, while the situation remains so unclear, we must pray for the peaceful development of our state and society, so we can ensure this crisis doesn’t open up into some wider conflict. But there are some very determined people on both sides, and we must hope things don’t deteriorate more drastically.”
