Belarus Protesters Hauled Off to Jail

Police in riot gear swept into a makeshift opposition camp in the heart of the Belarusian capital early today and dragged more than 300 protesters into waiting trucks, ending for the moment the most significant groundswell of anti-government protest in President Alexander Lukashenko’s 12 years as president.

In a chillingly efficient, 15-minute operation, commandos in helmets and face masks descended on the ragtag encampment and began beating and kicking youths who clenched arms to form a defensive perimeter. When those protesters were overpowered, the rest of the camp was quickly cleared.

“The police were beating and clubbing people, tearing people away from the line and taking them away. Inside the encampment, we all sat down and covered our heads with our arms, waiting for the worst,” Tatiana Vanina said in a telephone interview from the police truck where the protesters were heading to jail.

“Then a voice from one of our people shouted: ‘Don’t hit them, don’t hurt them! They’re just kids. We will go into your trucks voluntarily. We won’t resist.’ The word was passed not to resist,” she said.

The camp was erected in Oktyabrskaya Square, in the center of the capital, Minsk, shortly after a disputed presidential election returned Lukashenko to another five-year term with a reported 82.6% of the vote, compared with 6% for pro-democracy opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich.

Western election observers said the election and the campaign of newspaper closures, arrests and harassment of opposition activists that preceded it had violated democratic standards. Activists established the tent camp Monday night, a day after a nearly unprecedented 10,000 citizens flooded the streets to protest Sunday’s vote and demand a new one.

Milinkevich and fellow opposition candidate Alexander Kozulin have called a major rally for Saturday in a last-ditch attempt to capitalize on public indignation in Belarus and abroad.

The United Nations’ special envoy on human rights in Belarus, Adrian Severin, and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Chairman Karel De Gucht issued statements Thursday condemning the arrests of an estimated 200 or more opposition activists in recent days. Many of those detained were protesters -- senior aides among the most capable of keeping the opposition engaged -- who had left the camp intending to return shortly.

Viktor Korniyenko, a deputy chief of Milinkevich’s staff, was clubbed on the head and hospitalized in serious condition, the Associated Press reported.

“The Belarusian authorities must immediately put an end to the persecution of their opponents,” said De Gucht, who is also Belgium’s foreign minister. “It is unacceptable that people are being detained for trying to uphold their right to assemble and to express their views in a peaceful way.”

Kozulin was organizing an effort to identify the arrested and notify their parents.

“It is bad that none of us grown-ups, none of us leaders of the opposition, was there with the children we called upon to come out and defend freedom when it happened,” he said in a telephone interview. “The children are real heroes. They are the martyrs of Belarus today. And the authorities have demonstrated that they can’t imagine any other way to run this country but by force.”

Milinkevich’s spokesman, Sergei Voznyak, said the opposition leader had been at the camp earlier but left before the crackdown, which occurred about 3 a.m. He estimated the number of detained at 400 to 600. He said they would most likely face 10 to 15 days in prison.

Voznyak said he was not sure whether Saturday’s rally would proceed as planned. “Obviously, the people arrested today would make the core of that rally Saturday, and now they’re all in prison,” he said.

As she was transported toward the Okrestina detention center on the southwest outskirts of Minsk, Vanina said it appeared that authorities “ran out of patience” and moved to end the protests.

“They announced to the world that the Belarus people are all united in their love for Lukashenko. And they didn’t want us to sit there and show the rest of the country that there is another Belarus, which is not afraid, which is not prepared to live in lies,” she said.

Shortly after that, the truck stopped and she whispered that she would leave the telephone on as she and the others filed out. “Our conversation is coming to an end,” she whispered. “Listen to whatever is about to happen. Farewell.”

A harsh male voice could be heard soon thereafter. “Listen here, all of you!” it said. “Switch off your phones and get out, one by one.”

And then the phone went dead.

Times staff writer Sergei L. Loiko contributed to this report.