Thousands of protesters in Belarus swarmed the streets of the capital to demand the resignation of the country’s longtime president and encountered police using stun grenades to break up the crowds Thousands of protesters in Belarus swarmed the streets of the capital to demand the resignation of the country’s longtime president for the 13th straight Sunday and encountered police using stun grenades to break up the crowds and making warning shots in the air from what authorities said were “non-lethal weapons”. Up to 20,000 people took part in the rally, the Visana human rights centre estimated. Large crowds of people gathered in the eastern part of Minsk headed toward Kurapaty, a wooded area on the city’s outskirts where over 200,000 people were executed by Soviet secret police during Stalinist-era purges. Demonstrators carried banners reading, “The people’s memory (lasts) longer than a life of a dictatorship” and “Stop torturing your people!” The crowds directed chants of “Go awa...