Scores under arrest in post-poll violence
Belarus police yesterday arrested hundreds of protestors including four opposition candidates as they broke up a mass demonstration against the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko.
Lukashenko was elected for a fourth term on Sunday with 79.67 percent of the vote, the BELTA state news agency cited the electoral commission as saying.
The number of demonstrators against the disputed polls swelled to tens of thousands at a rally in central Minsk, AFP correspondents reported. Some of the protestors tried to storm government buildings and smash the glass doors.
But a reinforced contingent of anti-riot police descended on Independence Square, taking hundreds into waiting police vans. AFP correspondents, one of whom was arrested, saw several protestors beaten with truncheons.
The nine opposition candidates had earlier alleged fraud and summoned a mass protest in defiance of warnings from Lukashenko -- once condemned as Europe's last dictator by Washington.
Listening to speeches by five of the candidates condemning the polls, protestors waved Belarussian and EU flags and shouted "For Freedom!", "Down with the Gulag" and "Long Live Belarus".
"This was a farce and not an election," candidate Yaroslav Romanchuk told the rally. "The authorities had the chance to extend us a hand but again they did not."
An initial group of protestors had massed in the capital's main Oktyabrskaya Square and then marched on Independence Square, where several smashed the doors of the government building and election headquarters.
"This is where Belarus received its independence in 1991 and today this is where Lukashenko's dictatorship will fall," opposition candidate Andrei Sannikov told the swelling crowd.
Teams of anti-riot police however repelled the demonstrators, forming a human chain to prevent them from moving further and keeping them several metres away from the government building.
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