Thousands defy Belarus election theif

AP via NY Times:

Thousands of Belarusians defied a massive show of force by the hard-line government Saturday, protesting in streets swarming with riot police and gathering peacefully in a park to denounce President Alexander Lukashenko after a disputed election returned him to power.

Rows of black-clad police blocked a central square where opposition leaders had called for a rally at noon, pushing crowds back in a bid to end a week of unprecedented protests in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic. Demonstrators shouted ''Shame!'' and ''Long live Belarus!''

Tensions mounted swiftly around October Square as police in full riot gear arrived by the busload to shove protesters back. The crowd at a major intersection near the square -- where Lenin Street meets Independence Avenue -- quickly swelled from a few hundred to some 3,000.

After gathering on the other side of the sprawling square with a crowd of about the same size, opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich led supporters to a nearby park and the group swelled to as many as 5,000 people.

''The authorities can only confront the striving of the people for change with persecution and violence,'' Milinkevich told the crowd. Demonstrators held flowers and waved the red-and-white historic flag of the opposition.

''The people have come out today, they have come out in the face of truncheons, in the face of arrests. We are working against dictatorship,'' Milinkevich said. ''The more the authorities conduct repression, the closer they bring themselves to their end.''

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For a general uprising the crowds need to be much larger. We will have to see if this is just a start.