Page 46 - BNE_magazine_10_2020

46 I Eastern Europe bne October 2020
Some 10,000 women marched on September 12 and had to face the increased violence of the OMON but countered it with shrieks and ripping their masks off
The Belarusian Banshees
Ben Aris in Berlin
"You shall not pass!” chanted the shrieking women as the
OMON riot police tried to push at least 20 women out of the way
of a van full of detainees.
The women were shrieking, an otherworldly sound that is not screaming. They showed no fear as
the OMON loomed over them. But the shrieking that has become part of the standard armoury in the weekly female- only protests every Saturday clearly unnerves the OMON, who don't know how to deal with the women.
Again the OMON tried to shove the women out of the way of the van that was trying to leave with its cargo of protestors. The women had bound themselves into a block with tightly linked arms and hugging each other to prevent the OMON from breaking up the body of women blocking the road.
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As the OMON pushed against the women hands immediately shot out, grasping at their masks, trying to rip them from the faces of the balaclava- wearing officers.
This is another tactic that has appeared in the last week: unmask the OMON
and then post their identity and their crimes online: it has proved to be extremely effective, and once the mask is off the officers tend to turn tail and flee. The OMON backed off, defeated. The women were not going to be moved. “You will not pass!” they began to chant in unison.
A pro-government rally organised the same day to counter the women’s march drew a few hundred people
at best and only highlights the illegitimacy of the elections where Lukashenko claims to have won over 80% of the vote.
Violence slowly escalating
Violence escalated at the “Loudest March of the Women” demonstration on September 12 in Minsk. An estimated 10,000 turned out in the capital, with smaller rallies held in solidarity in various regional towns.
With Belarus' self-appointed President Alexander Lukashenko due to meet
with Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 14 to discuss the deeper integration between the two countries, the Belarusian incumbent wants to show he is in control of the situation, so the OMON were out in force.
The level of violence is ticking up steadily each week and the OMON crossed a new line when they broke the previous taboo and began arresting women earlier this week. Previously they had not dared touch them and the women used their immunity to form