MINSK: Belarus on Monday threatened to fire on protesters to break up demonstrations against President Alexander Lukashenko, as EU foreign ministers agreed to impose sanctions personally targeting the strongman leader.

The use of live firearms would mark a major escalation in the two-month standoff between Lukashenko and protesters, who have staged peaceful rallies against his disputed re-election in August and against the abuse and torture of detainees.

The warning came after security forces cracked down harshly on new anti-Lukashenko protests Sunday, prompting EU foreign ministers to agree it was time to sanction Lukashenko himself. Belarus pensioners also held the latest in a series of regular protests Monday to demand new elections and the resignation of Lukashenko.

Belarus’s first deputy interior minister Gennady Kazakevich said in a video statement that “we will not leave the streets and law enforcement officers and internal troops if necessary will use riot control equipment and lethal weapons.” Police have so far only acknowledged using water cannon, rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse the protesters.

Kazakevich claimed that protests had become “extremely radical” with stones and bottles thrown at police on Sunday by protesters armed with knives, who built barricades and set fire to tyres.

“This has nothing in common with civil protest,” the deputy minister said, claiming that “groups of fighters, radicals, anarchists and football fans” were taking part.

He said Belarus was facing attempts to revive the “chaos of the 1990s” and foment the “colour revolutions” that have toppled pro-Kremlin leaders in other ex-Soviet states.

His statement came as police used some of the harshest tactics yet against protesters at large marches on Sunday.

Police deployed water cannon and stun grenades in Minsk and detained more than 700 people across the country, the interior ministry said.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2020