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bne October 2020 Eastern Europe I 47
phalanxes around men the OMON were trying to detain to protect them.
But as the Loudest March got underway the OMON quickly appeared and began detaining protesters hoping to deter the would-be participants. More than 100 were herded into the waiting paddy wagons. One woman was brutally bodily thrown into the van as the officers tried to deal with a horde of shrieking women trying to rescue
their co-protesters.
The arrests are rising again, with over 600 in the last week and at least another 100 women arrested on September 12, bringing the total that have been taken into custody since the protests began just over a month ago to more than 10,000, according to NGO estimates.
As the numbers of demonstrators swelled the OMON were quickly overwhelmed. Clashes became
more frequent but less effective. In another incident three officers walked into the crowd intent on snatching demonstrators only to find themselves surrounded by clawing hands, trying to
rip off their balaclavas, before they were forced to beat a humiliating retreat.
The women have lost all fear of the authorities. The OMON have been defanged by their obvious discomfort with the shrieking women clawing at their faces. And they clearly worry about being doxxed by the crowd. In an incident early this week one officer was caught on film violently trying to pull a protester out of the crowd and taking swings at the people hanging on to the man until
last few days could go to a whole new level in the next weeks. The Telegram channel Nexta announced that a hacker group had managed to get into the Ministry of the Interior’s system and the channel has been given a database listing the ministry’s entire staff, including
all the police and OMON’s personal details, that it is threatening to publish if Lukashenko doesn't resign.
Belarus is a small country with just under 10mn people. There are only
“As the numbers of demonstrators swelled the OMON were quickly overwhelmed. Clashes became more frequent but less effective”
someone ripped his mask off. Within hours the officer’s profile was posted online, complete with pictures, including his wedding picture with his wife, and listing his address and telephone number.
And the “face and shame” campaign that has rapidly built up momentum in the
a few degrees of separation between the officers and the rest of the population and the state’s forces are clearly already worried about being outed.
In another incident a plainclothes officer was ostentatiously filming the faces of a crowd of women, a tactic long
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