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Police in Belarus beat, detain activists at rally

13 July 2011 21:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Police in Belarus have beaten and arrested dozens of anti-government protesters during a banned rally in the capital of the authoritarian former Soviet nation calling for the ouster of President Alexander Lukashenko, APA reports siting AP.
An AP reporter saw dozens of plainclothes police round up the protesters during Wednesday’s rally, kicking and punching them before bundling them into unmarked vans.
It was the sixth rally in a series called "Revolution by Social Networks," a grass-roots movement that claims thousands of supporters nationwide.
The government has banned the rallies, which feature novel forms of non-vocal protest. Hundreds of demonstrators on Wednesday set the alarms on their cell phones to trigger at 8 p.m. in a gesture calling for fellow Belarusians to wake up and resist Lukashenko’s government.