Jailed Belarus strike leaders and opposition activists arrested

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) – The Belarusian authorities on Monday handed a prison sentence for a strike organizers in the factory and arrested the leading opposition activists to stifle a part of a methodical effort to weeks of protests against the authoritarian rulers of the country after elections, the opposition says rigged. President Alexander Lukashenko, who for 26 years has established the nation’s 9.5 million, with an iron fist, has dismissed the protesters as Western puppets and rejected offers of mediation of the European Union. After the wild protests in the first days after the presidential elections on August 9th international outrage caused his government has avoided large-scale violence against demonstrators and past threats and selective detention of activists to hold protests. Anatoly Bokun leader of the strike committee in Belaruskali, a major potash plant in Soligorsk, was arrested by police Monday and 15 days in prison on charges of organizing an unauthorized protest Enter. The factory, which represents a fifth of the production of potash fertilizers in the world, is the nation’s top cash earners. had the strike committee spokesman Belaruskali, Gleb Sandras, authorities said a strike at the factory managed to stop that began two weeks ago and all its potash mines are working. He said that agents of the Committee for State Security Belarus, which goes by the name of the Soviet era KGB, workers under pressure they had to end the strike. “Agents of the KGB have invaded the factory, the monitoring of the most active workers and used various media pressure,” Sandra told The Associated Press. “The authorities have strong economic instruments. They are blackmailing workers with collective redundancies.” It affects Belaruskali and many other leading industrial plants have launched an unprecedented challenge to Lukashenko, who has kept the bulk of the economy in state hands and relied blue on workers as the basis of the main support. Belarus Yuri Nazarov acknowledged Monday Deputy Prime Minister that the strike posed a problem, but said that all large industrial facilities have resumed normal operation. Bokun detention follows the arrest of the leaders of the strike in two other large industrial plants in Minsk last week. The organizer of a strike in Grodno Azot, one of the largest producers of nitrogen fertilizers, fled to escape to Poland in prison. Trying to stem the protests, the Belarusian lawyers have a criminal probe against the opposition Coordination Council was established a transfer of power to negotiate, accusing its members to undermine the country’s security. Last week he delivered Belarusian courts from 10 days imprisonment up to two board members and many others for questioning, including Svetlana Alexievich called awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for 2015. Another board member, Lilia Vlasova , he was arrested on Monday. “This is the government’s response to our peaceful campaigns and offers of dialogue,” said Councilor Maria Kolesnikova the AP. “It means that the protests will grow.” Monday ‘, Lukashenko has ordered the dismissal of Belarus ambassadors in Spain, Pavel Pustavy who called in a Facebook article for a recount of the election and criticized the beating of peaceful protesters. Belarus earlier rejected its ambassador in Slovakia and India because to support the expressed demonstrators. Belarusian authorities on Monday also denied entry into Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, the 74-year-old archbishop of Minsk and Mogilev. Him for hours at the border waiting at the bus stop before turning it in Poland. Last week criticized Kondrusiewicz much the Belarusian police. Both the United States and the European Union have criticized the election on August 9 to discuss the extensive opposition to the rule of Lukashenko as neither free nor fair and urged the Belarusian authorities – request that the 66-year-old leader She rejected. Monday ‘, the EU Baltic states – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – slapped travel sanctions against 30 senior Belarusian officials, including Lukashenko. The EU Foreign Ministers prepare their own sanctions against up to 20 senior officials of Belarus suspected of electoral fraud and the violence used against demonstrators. The Belarus Foreign Ministry spokesman, Anatoly Glaz, warned that Minsk would repay. Last week Lukashenko has threatened to respond within the flow of Belarusian imports redirect via Lithuanian ports and to block the transit of European goods Belarus. In addition to daily protests, the opposition held another mass rally on Sunday which saw some 100,000 people flooded the streets of Minsk amid a heavy police presence. A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Steffen Seibert, welcomed the courage of the demonstrators and urged Lukashenko seen as “on Monday, the reality of the country – an open dialogue between the leadership, the opposition and the entire society in Belarus to be brought to a peaceful solution. ” But on Monday rejected Lukashenko bluntly the opposition advanced in the country to restore the former Constitution, provided ample parliamentary powers. A violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators after the vote saw nearly 7,000 arrested, hundreds violated by police with rubber bullets, concussion grenades and shock, and at least three demonstrators dead. The police then let the demonstrations go unhindered for the next two weeks, but last week again raised the pressure on the protesters. Over the weekend, the Belarusian government cracked too hard on the media to deport some foreign journalists and withdraw the accreditation of many Belarusian journalists. Two Moscow-based journalists Associated Press that the protests in coverage Belarus were deported to Russia on Saturday. In addition, journalists Belarusian AP was told that their press cards had been revoked. The Belarusian Association of Journalists said credit rights from 17 Belarusians work have been taken to other media, including Germany ARD, BBC, Reuters and AFP. The US-funded Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty had five journalists lose their accreditation. The United States and the European Union have strongly condemned the Belarus government media crackdown. ___ Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania contributed to this report.
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