Demonstrators have demanded the resignation of Belarusian President, Alexander Lukashenko.
The demand on Sunday August 23, 2020, is a reaction against the president’s disputed re-election earlier this month.
Lukashenko dispatched riot police to disperse rallies that erupted after he claimed a sixth presidential term in an election two weeks ago that critics say was rigged.
Thousands of demonstrators draped in red-and-white flags of the opposition on Sunday flooded Independence Square in the capital as a group of women protested against police violence ahead of the opposition’s “March of New Belarus”.
“We have just two demands: fair elections and stop the violence,” 32-year-old Igor said.
Officials issued a warning to Belarusians against participating in “illegal demonstrations”.
The defence ministry said it would intervene to protect World War II memorials, which it described as “sacred places”, and four metro stations in central Minsk were closed.
Solidarity rallies were also due in neighbouring Lithuania, where demonstrators planned to form a human chain from Vilnius to the Belarus border, three decades after residents of the Baltic states joined hands and linked their capital cities in a mass protest against Soviet rule.
The European Union has rejected the results of the presidential election that gave Lukashenko 80 percent of the vote.
The EU has also promised to sanction Belarusians responsible for ballot fraud and a police crackdown that saw nearly 7,000 people arrested and sparked gruesome allegations of torture and abuse in police custody.
