Alexander Lukashenko was sworn in for his sixth term in office on Wednesday in a clandestine ceremony without any prior announcement
Credit: Andrei Stasevich/BelTA/Handout/EPA-EFE
Riot police were violently detaining protesters across the city and at least two demonstrators were injured and received medical aid, witnesses said.
Viasna rights group said at least 33 people were detained in Minsk and elsewhere.
Mr Lukashenko, who previously vowed to stay in power unless protesters “kill” him, had a defiant message for the nation:
“I cannot and I have no right to abandon Belarusians who tied their future, the future of their children to the policy of the state, who stayed true to the country and its people in such a difficult time for Belarus.”
Streets of Minsk were blocked Wednesday morning for what later turned out to be Alexander Lukashenko's swear-in ceremony
Credit: TUT.by via AP
Images released by the state-owned news agency BelTa on Wednesday showed the Belarusian leader address several dozen officials. BelTa said the ceremony was attended by hundreds of top officials as well prominent scientists and cultural figures.
The ceremony was not televised or broadcast on the radio.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya spoke about Mr Lukashenko's violent crackdown on peaceful protesters during her speech at the European Parliament earlier this week
Credit: Stephanie Lecocq/EPA-EFE
Mr Lukashenko since his re-election has faced an unprecedented wave of protests with the country’s leading cultural figures and athletes speaking out against his rule and police brutality. He has described the protesters as agents of the West and claimed that Western nations are out to topple him.
In the weeks after his re-election, Mr Lukashenko’s security agencies have jailed the few remaining opposition figures and forced others into exile.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the Belarusian opposition leader in exile in Lithuania, on Wednesday dismissed Mr Lukashenko’s swear-in ceremony as an “attempt to win legitimacy.”
“The so-called inauguration is a farce: Lukashenko has simply retired,” she said in a video message.
“It means that his orders for security services are not legitimate and should not to be followed.”
Hundreds of thousands have been rallying in the Belarusian capital Minsk against President Alexander Lukashenko for six weekends
Credit: STR/EPA-EFE
Pavel Latushko, former Belarusian ambassador to France who recently emerged as a popular opposition figure, on Wednesday condemned the secret swear-in ceremony, saying that Belarusians "will never agree with vote-rigging" and called for a nationwide campaign of civil disobedience.
Several European countries including Germany have refused to recognise Mr Lukashenko as the legitimately elected leader even after he was sworn in.
“Forged elections. Forged inauguration,” Linas Linkevicius, Lithuania’s foreign minister, tweeted on Wednesday.
The US said Wednesday it did not consider Alexander Lukashenko the legitimate president of Belarus.
"The elections August 9 were neither free nor fair. The announced results were fraudulent and did not convey legitimacy," a State Department spokesperson said. "The United States cannot consider Alexander Lukashenko the legitimately elected leader of Belarus."
Without any calls for protests or coordination Minsk residents took to the streets in different parts of town immediately after the announcement, waving historic white-and-red flags and carrying posters, condemning the secret inauguration.
Mr Lukashenko’s government deployed riot police and security forces to the streets of Minsk early Wednesday evening to deal with potential demonstrations.
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