A leading opposition activist and several other members of an opposition council in Belarus went missing on Monday, with their colleagues fearing they were detained
as part of the authorities' efforts to squelch nearly a month of protests against the re-election of the country's authoritarian leader.
A council member, Maxim Znak, said Kolesnikova's colleagues fear she was detained. Two other members of the council also couldn't be reached on Monday, according to Znak.that Kolesnikova's disappearance is part of the Belarusian authorities' effort to "cynically eliminate one by one" and called for her immediate release.
Protesters with old Belarusian national flags march during an opposition supporters rally in Minsk on Sunday.After a brutal crackdown in the first few days after the vote that stoked international outrage and swelled the ranks of protesters, the authorities have switched to threats and selective arrests of opposition activists and demonstrators.
Targeting the protest leaders, Belarusian prosecutors have opened a criminal probe of the Coordination Council that opposition activists set up after the election to try to negotiate a transition of power. Two of its members were given 10-day jail sentences on charges of staging unsanctioned protests last week. One of them, Olga Kovalkova, said she was pressured to leave for Poland over the weekend after being threatened with a longer jail term.
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