Eight Years Ago Belarusians Took To Square

On December 19, 2010, the Belarusian Uprising of Dignity took place.

Today is the eighth anniversary of the Belarusian Square.

On December 19, 2010 Belarus held presidential elections. After the closure of polling stations, tens of thousands of people came out to demonstrate against the rigging of election results. It has become the most widespread protest in Belarus in recent years. But the peaceful protest was brutally suppressed by the police and internal troops.

Detentions, interrogations and arrests of opposition activists continued for several months. More than 700 people were thrown behind bars, dozens of the beaten were taken to hospitals. Criminal proceedings were instituted against 46 leaders and opposition activists, including presidential candidates, some of them went to prison for 2 – 6 years. Thousands of Belarusians were forced to leave their homeland because of criminal prosecution.

Subsequently, the Charter97.org editor-in-chief, Natallia Radzina, evaluated the events of December 19, 2010 as follows: “Ukrainians call Euromoidan the Revolution of Dignity. In 2010, we also had an Uprising of Dignity. The people who took to the streets then started to respect themselves and made the world respect the Belarusian people.”