Opposition Leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania for fear of her own safety, claims that her missing supporters were supposedly made to “disappear” by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. She further disclosed that a lot of people in Belarus are now political prisoners and that around 70 people have vanished after the demonstrations. For three weeks in a row, thousands of people marched again in peaceful protest demanding Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to resign after allegedly rigging the August 9 elections where he won 80% of the votes although his opponent, Ms. Tikhanovskaya, believes she won 60-70% based on results that had been properly counted.
Read: Demonstrators Hold Mass Rally in Minsk Demanding for Lukashenko to Step Down
Politico.com: Tikhanovskaya alleges her missing supporters were made to disappear by the regime of strongman Alexander Lukashenko
In an interview by Politico with Belarus Opposition Leader, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, described her missing supporters as political prisoners made to disappear by the regime of strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who is still clinging to power despite continuing widespread protests and labor strikes over the disputed August 9 election.
Through a videoconference, Tikhanovskaya said “that a lot of people in Belarus now are political prisoners. They just are in jail without any court, and they are in there only for their, I don’t know, for their wish to talk about what’s going on in Belarus, about their desire to live in a free country.”
She further recounts that “everybody has seen all the violence that our authorities have committed, our police committed toward all these peaceful people. And not one criminal case was organized to investigate this, you know these crimes, as if it’s normal. No, it’s not normal and cases should be opened against every policeman that beat these people.”
In the interview, Tikhanovskaya restated her commitment to leading the country only to new, free elections, and said she had no plan to serve long-term as president.
