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| - Germany on Monday demanded "clarity" on the whereabouts of a senior Belarusian opposition figure who allies say was snatched off the streets, after hundreds were arrested at weekend protests. The opposition's Coordination Council said one of its high-profile members Maria Kolesnikova had been "kidnapped by unknown people in central Minsk" along with a spokesman and executive secretary. It accused President Alexander Lukashenko's regime of "openly using methods of terror." The interior ministry said 633 people were detained on Sunday for illegal mass gatherings, one of the largest wave of arrests since the early days of the demonstrations. Voicing concern over the fate of Kolesnikova, Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas demanded "clarity on the whereabouts and the release of all political prisoners in Belarus." "The continued arrests and repression, including and in particular against members of the Coordination Council, are unacceptable," the German minister, whose country holds the presidency of the EU, told Bild daily in an interview. The Coordination Council was set up to ensure a peaceful transfer of power after Lukashenko's main rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya rejected his claim to have won an August 9 presidential election with 80 percent of the vote. Tikhanovskaya left the country under pressure from the authorities and was granted refuge in EU member Lithuania. "The more they try to scare us, the more people will take to the streets," Tikhanovskaya said in a statement. A spokesman for the European Commission, Peter Stano, said the EU's executive branch was trying to establish what happened and condemned the Belarusian authorities' actions as "unacceptable". He said the EU hoped to impose sanctions "very soon" after drawing up a list of individuals responsible for police violence against protesters and rigged elections. The disputed election has sparked demonstrations that have seen tens of thousands take to the streets of the ex-Soviet country of 9.5 million on Russia's western borders, in an unprecedented challenge to Lukashenko's 26 years in power. An AFP journalist said the crowd of demonstrators waving the opposition's red-and-white flag on Sunday appeared to be as large or larger than on the previous three Sundays, when more than 100,000 people rallied in the streets of Minsk. But police also appeared to be stepping up a campaign to quash the demonstrations, deploying troops, water cannon and armoured vehicles. Local media reported hooded men in civilian clothes with batons chased and beat demonstrators. Kolesnikova's office said witnesses described her being snatched off the street in the capital Minsk on Monday morning by unidentified men in black who bundled her into a minibus marked "Communications". "More than 8 hours have passed and we still don't know where Maria is and what is happening to her," said lawyer Maxim Znak, a member of the Coordination Council, in a video blog on Monday evening. The Coordination Council said its press secretary Anton Rodnenkov and executive secretary Ivan Kravtsov had also disappeared, while police said they had no information on detentions. Znak said Kravtsov and Rodnenkov went missing after heading to Kolesnikova's flat in search of her. He added that Kravtsov's flat had been searched by a state agency that probes financial violations. Belarusian authorities had already detained several members of the Coordination Council and others have left the country under official pressure. One, Olga Kovalkova, said on Saturday she was in Poland after security services threatened her and took her to the border. Kolesnikova and other members including Nobel Literature Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich have faced questioning in a probe over an alleged bid to seize power. Kolesnikova, 38, is the only one of the trio of women who fronted Tikhanovskaya's campaign to remain in Belarus. Tikhanovskaya's other campaign partner, Veronika Tsepkalo, is now in Ukraine. Kolesnikova, a trained flautist and music teacher, entered politics to run the campaign of another opposition politician, ex-banker Viktor Babaryko, who attempted to stand for president against Lukashenko but was jailed and barred from running. tk-am/mbx/ach
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