Top Belarusian opposition figure disappears

The government is cracking down on opponents of Alexander Lukashenko.

MINSK — The Belarusian opposition accused the nation’s authorities of “terror” after Maria Kolesnikova, a vocal critic of President Alexander Lukashenko, was abducted in downtown Minsk on Monday morning.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, Lukashenko’s main rival during the August election, said in a statement from Lithuania that “the regime is engaged in terror.”

“The authorities are wrong when they think it will stop us,” she said. “The more they intimidate, the more people will go out. We will continue to fight, we will seek the release of all prisoners and the holding of a new and fair election.”

Kolesnikova was the last of the three women who joined forces to mount a formidable electoral challenge to Lukashenko remaining in Belarus. Tikhanovskaya was forced to flee to Lithuania under pressure from the authorities, while Veronika Tsepkalo is currently abroad for safety reasons.

Kolesnikova’s disappearance is part of an ongoing crackdown by the authorities that has seen more violence against street protests. More than 600 people were detained after Sunday’s massive anti-Lukashenko protests, authorities said. There is also an effort to cripple the opposition Coordination Council, a body created to ensure a peaceful transition of power. Lukashenko has denounced it as illegal.

“In recent days, instead of a dialogue with society, the authorities started to openly use terror methods,” the Coordination Council said in a statement on Monday. Kolesnikova is one of the council’s leaders.

The body’s spokesman and its executive secretary were also abducted by unidentified people on Monday. The move followed Saturday’s “forcible removal from the country” of another leader of the council, Olga Kovalkova.

“When I was in prison, they came to me and said that if I did not leave, I would not be released for a long time,” Kovalkova said at a press conference held Monday in Warsaw. She said she was forced into a car and taken to the Polish border.

The council said that charges had also been filed against Liliya Vlasova, another senior member of the council. “Another member of the presidium, Sergei Dylevskiy, is under administrative arrest at the moment,” the statement said.

“Such methods are illegal and cannot lead to any result other than aggravating the situation in the country, deepening the crisis and escalation of protests,” the council added.

The sweep was criticized by the EU.

“Arbitrary arrests and kidnappings on political grounds in Belarus, including this morning’s brutal actions against Andrei Yahorau, Irina Sukhiy & Maria Kalesnikova, are unacceptable. State authorities must stop intimidating citizens & violating their own laws and int. obligations,” tweeted Josep Borrell, the bloc’s foreign policy chief.

“Instead of talking to the people of Belarus, the outgoing leadership is trying to cynically eliminate [opposition leaders] one by one,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius tweeted on Monday.

Click Here: los jaguares argentina

He called “the kidnapping” of Kolesnikova “a disgrace.”