MOSCOW, July 6 (UPI) -- A police crackdown against peaceful demonstrators in Belarus is "absurd," a director at Human Rights Watch charged.
Belarusian police during the weekend arrested more than 300 people for taking part in protest across the country. Human Rights Watch said it received reports that police beat the protesters and Tuesday at least 40 people were charged or fined for what authorities described as "hooliganism."
"The police crackdown in Belarus is brutal, absurd, and wrong," Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "Arresting people for walking silently or clapping their hands is an outrageous assault on peaceful assembly."
Washington and the European Union admonished President Alexander Lukashenko in response to a post-election crackdown. Lukashenko, the only president of a post-Soviet Belarus, ordered the arrest of rival presidential candidates and 600 opposition figures after he secured another term early this year.
European officials hit four members of Lukashenko's inner circle with asset freezes and travel bans in June.
Lukashenko, facing a looming economic crisis in his country, said he would close the borders if the economy grew worse.
