Hundreds of medical workers in Minsk and many other cities joined Thursday the demonstrations against re-election of Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko.
“I’m deeply disappointed on the one hand, but the from the other, it’s been expected,” said Mikhail Portnov, a 33-year old general practitioner.
“The man (Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko) who is the reason of all this (protests) wouldn’t have left in other way.”
The unprecedented public opposition and unrest has been driven by the painful economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and Lukashenko’s swaggering dismissal of the outbreak as a “psychosis.”
The vote and the brutality of the subsequent crackdown — remarkable even for Lukashenko’s iron-fisted rule — have made the anger boil over.
The 65-year-old former state farm director has been in power since 1994 and was nicknamed “Europe’s last dictator” by the West for his suppression of dissent.
“We are medics, and it’s tough for us to look at this situation,” said Anna Roban, who joined a demonstration in Minsk.
“It’s been hard during the COVID, but we have done our best, and now we have to treat injured, beaten and crippled people.”
The ministry said 103 police officers had been injured since Sunday, and 28 of them were hospitalized.
In Minsk and the western city of Baranovichi, people ran over traffic police with their vehicles on Wednesday before being detained.
The brutal suppression of protests drew harsh criticism in the West.
During a meeting with workers of a plant in Grodno, near the border with Poland, the local police chief apologized for the violent crackdown, according to tut.by news portal.
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